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In the Championship – Celebration time
He run to the crowd behind the goal at the North Bank and promptly jumped in, run back a few rows and was mobbed by delighted supporters. Referee Trevor Kettle was waiting for him on his return and proceeded to wave a yellow card at him for over celebrating.
Needless to say, just over ten minutes later, Kettle felt fit to yellow card him for a foul and off he went, probably taking Wolves chances of winning with him. His manager Glenn Hoddle in a massive understatement said, “He went over the top with his celebration.”
As for the game, Hoddle thought Wolves outplayed Preston whilst our friend from down the road, Craig Brown’s apprentice thought Preston had outplayed Wolves. I certainly know who I don’t believe.
There is no consistency, and when Reading’s Dave Kitson celebrated the only goal of the game at Stoke he too run to the crowd and jumped on the wall to join some of the Reading fans, referee Salisbury took no action whatsoever. Get it right referees, one way or the other.
Stoke weren’t happy with the penalty, suggesting Kitson had not been touched when he went down. That’s almost as likely as a Billy Davies complaint. It did prove to be the winner, and it took Reading a couple of points closer to the top of the league.
For Stoke, manager Johan Boskamp was most concerned over Luke Chadwick, who again had to come off, this time at half time, because of a recurring abdominal injury that might mean him returning prematurely to West Ham. Surely Boskamp is not suggesting our former loan player has no guts.
That lead at the top of the league was cut to three points because Sheffield United failed to win at Leeds on Friday. It was a good game, it ended 1-1, with two superb goals from Frazer Richardson and Steven Kabba whilst Robbie Blake had his football boots back on.
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Norwich were favourites for this league before a ball was kicked in August, I bet they are not now. Having conceded four goals in the first half at Luton on Tuesday they conceded another three at QPR, going down 3-0 in a game where the scoreline flattered them.
Goals from Marc Nygaard, Paul Furlong and Georges Santos meant Rangers were three up after just 42 minutes and again Norwich must surely be looking hard and long at goalkeeper Robert Green who had yet another poor game for them.
There are now finally suggestions that manager Nigel Worthington might no longer have the full support of the board, so watch this space, although the talk at Loftus Road after the game was the possibility of Ian Holloway losing his job because of differences with his board.
Holloway had received some stick from fans for leaving out Richard Langley and so invited one of them in to the dressing room before the game and allowed him to take over and do the team talk. It worked, maybe an unknown fan will be the next manager.
Dennis Wise was on the bench for Southampton and won himself a standing ovation from the home fans at Millwall on his first return, the fans at the Den never do learn, they would probably even applaud Kevin Muscat if he returned.
Youngster Theo Walcott scored again for the Saints and a second from the devout cheat Ricardo Fuller was enough to give them a comfortable victory, their first in ten games. That run of draws is now well and truly behind them.
The result means Millwall are still bottom despite Crewe’s desperate efforts to take the spot. They weren’t doing too badly at Cardiff and were holding them 1-1 at half time. But Dario G’s boys took defending to a new level in the second half and conceded five more goals within half an hour of the restart.
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It was fun and games at Hull. Two penalties, two disallowed goals, eight bookings and a sending off, welcome to the world of flood warden Andy Hall. Hull won the game 2-1 with goals from Stuart Elliott and Stuart Green, the second from the spot, and legend Peter Taylor said it was a fantastic performance.
Needless to say Derby boss Phil Brown was not happy with the referee, and he has some justifiable complaint. The two Derby goals that were disallowed looked bad decisions and the red card for Andrew Davies, his second of the season, was a result of arguing the toss over the second one.
I do enjoy a game between two other sides when the referee gets it all horribly wrong, at least you realise then that its not just the Clarets who suffer because of bad decisions. Brown, who is still employing a 42 year-old goalkeeper, probably because his dad doesn’t have too much to say, is back under pressure with the fans again voicing their disapproval.
I think I could have predicted goals from Mark de Vries yesterday. Having heavily criticised him following his performance against Burnley, if indeed you could even consider it a performance, he turned the game on its head yesterday against Coventry.
It was billed on television yesterday as the ‘69’ derby which left me wondering what on earth was going to happen, that was until I was told it was because the two cities were at either end of the M69 motorway. Coventry took the lead through Gary McSheffrey and then up came the lumbering big Dutchman to head goals either side of the half time interval to win the points for the home side.
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That leaves us with one game and a good day for Adie Boothroyd who saw his side looking up again. They won at Ipswich, courtesy of an Ashley Young goal, a win that keeps them in the top six. For the Tractor Boys it means a place in the bottom half of the table, and it is a good while since that’s been the case. They are finding out you cannot sell all your best players without suffering.
None of our clubs needed emergency loans this week, maybe FIFA are suddenly keeping a closer eye, although Crewe’s Juan Ugarte went back to Wrexham on loan. He’s not been able to win a place in the Crewe side and has now dropped back a division lower than where he got his goals last season.
Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton complete the weekend fixtures tonight and the Clarets get next weekend underway on Friday when we play Hull on the Turf for the first time since a very special day in 1995. The fixtures for this week are shown below the weekend stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 21st October | |
Leeds 1 Sheffield Utd 1 | . |
Saturday 22nd October | |
Cardiff 6 Crewe 1 | Millwall 0 Southampton 2 |
Crystal Palace 2 Burnley 0 | QPR 3 Norwich 0 |
Hull 2 Derby 1 | Stoke 0 Reading 1 |
Ipswich 0 Watford 1 | Wolves 1 Preston 1 |
Luton 1 Plymouth 1 | . |
Sunday 23rd October | |
Leicester 2 Coventry 1 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Cardiff 6-1 v Crewe (home) |
Total goals scored | 28 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Mark de Vries (Leicester) |
Highest Attendance | 24,069 - Ipswich v Watford |
Lowest Attendance | 8,714 - Luton v Watford |
Total Yellow Cards | 48 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Hull v Derby (8Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
8 | Rob Hulse (Leeds) Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Ashley Young (Watford) |
6 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Dean Ashton (Norwich) Mark de Vries (Leicester) Steve Howard (Luton) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Marlon King (Watford) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) |
5 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Leroy Lita (Reading) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 25 | 0 | Millwall | 30 | 5 |
| Burnley | 25 | 2 | Norwich | 25 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 27 | 0 | Plymouth | 29 | 0 |
| Coventry | 33 | 3 | Preston | 28 | 2 |
| Crewe | 15 | 0 | QPR | 34 | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 30 | 0 | Reading | 18 | 0 |
| Derby | 30 | 3 | Sheffield Utd | 23 | 0 |
| Hull | 19 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 21 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 23 | 3 | Southampton | 34 | 2 |
| Leeds | 22 | 1 | Stoke | 24 | 4 |
| Leicester | 31 | 1 | Watford | 29 | 1 |
| Luton | 20 | 1 | Wolves | 17 | 1 |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Monday 24th October | |
Sheffield Wed v Brighton | . |
Friday 28th October | |
Burnley v Hull | . |
Saturday 29th October | |
Brighton v Ipswich | Preston v Leicester |
Coventry v Luton | Reading v Leeds |
Crewe v Crystal Palace | Sheffield Utd v Cardiff |
Derby v QPR | Southampton v Stoke |
Norwich v Sheffield Wed | Watford v Wolves |
Sunday 30th October | |
Plymouth v Millwall | . |