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In the Championship - Closer at the bottom
All seemed to be quiet there for about half an hour but once in front Coventry were soon three up and just after half time got their fourth. That was it, other than a late Bobby Hassell goal, and it ensured the Tykes would remain below us. Two of the Coventry goals came from our former loan player Dele Adebola, not much short of three years since he scored for us during our last battle against the drop.
Hull weren't level for long at the Stadium of Light, it was less than three minutes before Jonny Evans, on loan from Manchester United, got his first goal for RK Sunderland. It proved to be a tense afternoon for Clarets keeping a check on this one and it wasn't until the last minute of normal time before the home side doubled their lead to ensure the points.
It's been a hell of a week at Luton. Manager Mike Newell opened his gob again. He had a go at Dennis Wise (good on him for that) and then attacked his chairman for the very last time. Enough was enough for the Luton board who decided Newell's time was up and they have replaced him on a temporary basis with former player Brian Stein.
Stein didn't get off to a winning start and Luton, like Barnsley, suffered at the hands of an ex-Claret. An Owen Garvan effort came off the bar to an unmarked Alan Lee who headed home. Trying to break a run of five successive defeats they did have the ball in the net but there'd been a foul and when Marlon Beresford failed to get to a cross Ipswich ensured victory with a second.
If that was all good news for Burnley then I think Leicester owe us one. They recently sneaked out of the Turf with three points following a bizarre own goal and on Saturday did us no favours as they conceded three goals in just over twenty minutes against a resurgent Queens Park Rangers.
Marc Nygaard got two of them, his first was from a very soft penalty but the second was an excellent finish from outside the box. Leicester did pull one back from another dodgy looking penalty, but it was too little too late.
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I'm not sure where to start with this one, would I want the obnoxious little manager from Leeds to come out on top or would I want this most incompetent of officials to claim victory? Neither would be my shout.
It was Miller who came out on top in the end. Into stoppage time Leeds got a cross into the Southend box that was clearly handled by defender Simon Francis. Miller saw it, signalled the handball, and promptly awarded Southend a free kick. This was all too much for Wise and his side kick Poyet and at one point it looked as though the argument between manager and coach and referee could get seriously out of hand.
But as I said, Miller won, he sent them both off. I wonder why home manager Steve Tilson was spotted smiling just a few feet away in the home technical area.
There was fun in the away team dug out at Hillsborough too, well not quite in the dug out but on the pitch as Wolves manager Mick McCarthy stormed onto the pitch to remonstrate after a foul by Wednesday's Frankie Simek.
It was a bad one, no doubt about that, but only referee Jonathan Moss will know whether he would have sent him off without McCarthy's intervention. The Wolves boss saw his side twice come from behind to get a draw, the second equaliser coming from Andy Keogh in the dying seconds, but he was still fuming after the game.
"If anyone condones that then there's something wrong," he stormed, adding: "It's not part of the game. People will be saying I used to be physical and tackled people, I was, but I didn't do things like that."
McCarthy also said that he felt his opposing manager Brian Laws would be quick to condemn it but Laws was very unhappy at the decision from Moss and said: "Frankie has gone for the ball, and to go into the tackle the way he did he had to be going for the ball. He got it and yet the referee has deemed it a red card offence."
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The impressive Giles Barnes scored for Derby again with Steve Howard getting two, although his second was a clear hand ball, but there was no sign of the league's best striker scoring for Cardiff.
Michael Chopra once played for Newcastle you know, and not only that he can't believe that David Nugent has been selected for England ahead of him. "It does my head in," said Chopra when he realised that Nugent was ahead of him. "He's a good player but I'm not getting a fair crack at the England set up." Maybe Michael if you'd actually scored some goals when you played for Newcastle, then you might have had a chance, but you didn't did you?
Derby held their lead on Sunday when Birmingham failed to win at West Brom, but the point they got was a good one, coming with a late equaliser after they'd been reduced to ten men. Maybe there was some justice that Damien Johnson got the goal, he was the victim of Paul Robinson's 'challenge' when the two sides met earlier in the season at St Andrew's.
It's a worry for West Brom, that's five games without a win now, just two points out of fifteen, and just at the wrong time of the season, but they are not the only ones suffering from a loss of form. Southampton played in front of the lowest ever crowd at St Mary's on Friday night against Colchester and this defeat has left them with just one point from four games.
They weren't level for long. Jamie Cureton scored after four minutes and got his second within a minute of the Saints equaliser. Nathan Dyer got his first start for the home side since breaking his leg at the end of December.
A couple of years ago Chelsea were fined for nicking young players from smaller clubs and had to pay compensation to Gillingham, Stockport and Bristol Rovers. The Championship is now seeing the player from Bristol Rovers, Scott Sinclair who is currently on loan at Plymouth.
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Not a youngster but Darren Huckerby is in some form at the moment and netted Norwich's winner against Stoke. It was a good run from him and then a good finish after the ball was played back to him by Chris Martin.
Stoke weren't happy, they had Andy Griffin sent off for a foul on Youssef Safri and they intend to appeal against the decision. They claim Griffin played the ball, but the same manager and the same set of players were screaming blue murder recently when Sol Davis of Luton was sent off against them when he'd played the ball. Davis lost his appeal, and so will Griffin.
It's rest time now, we've got the international weekend coming up, and that means there is no Championship football for almost two weeks. The big fixtures involving the clubs at the bottom of the league are our home game against Luton and the clash between Hull and Southend at the KC Stadium. The next fixtures are shown below this week's stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 16th March | |
Southampton 1 Colchester 2 | . |
Saturday 17th March | |
Coventry 4 Barnsley 1 | Plymouth 1 Crystal Palace 0 |
Derby 3 Cardiff 1 | Preston 2 Burnley 0 |
Leicester 1 QPR 3 | Sheffield Wed 2 Wolves 2 |
Luton 0 Ipswich 2 | Southend 1 Leeds 1 |
Norwich 1 Stoke 0 | RK Sunderland 2 Hull 0 |
Sunday 18th March | |
West Brom 1 Birmingham 1 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Coventry 4-1 v Barnsley (home) |
Total goals scored | 32 |
Player scoring most goals | Dele Adebola (Coventry) |
Highest Attendance | 38,448 - RK Sunderland v Hull |
Lowest Attendance | 8,880 - Luton v Ipswich |
Total Yellow Cards | 39 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Preston v Burnley (8Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
21 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) |
19 | Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) |
18 | Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) |
17 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) |
16 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) Steve Howard (Derby) |
15 | Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) |
14 | Alan Lee (Ipswich) Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham) David Nugent (Preston) |
13 | Rowan Vine (Birmingham) - 12 with Luton |
12 | Iain Hume (Leicester) Kenwyne Jones (Southampton) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) |
11 | Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed) David Connolly (RK Sunderland) Freddy Eastwood (Southend) |
10 | Andy Gray (Burnley) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) Steven MacLean (Sheffield Wed) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
26th Aug | 3 - Jamie Cureton - COLCHESTER v Derby |
12th Sep | 3 - Gifton Noel-Williams - BURNLEY v Barnsley |
14th Oct | 3 - Kevin Phillips - Ipswich v WEST BROM |
29th Oct | 3 - Alan Lee - IPSWICH v Luton |
28th Nov | 4 - Chris Iwelumo - COLCHESTER v Hull |
9th Dec | 3 - Gary McSheffrey - BIRMINGHAM v Preston |
27h Jan | 3 - Michael Chopra - CARDIFF v Leicester |
17th Feb | 3 - Andrew Surman - SOUTHAMPTON v Barnsley |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 71 | 5 | Luton | 56 | 6 |
| Birmingham | 61 | 7 | Norwich | 64 | 4 |
| Burnley | 70 | 7 | Plymouth | 79 | 4 |
| Cardiff | 55 | 8 | Preston | 65 | 4 |
| Colchester | 41 | 1 | QPR | 80 | 1 |
| Coventry | 72 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 72 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 43 | 1 | Southampton | 52 | 1 |
| Derby | 86 | 3 | Southend | 63 | 4 |
| Hull | 76 | 3 | Stoke | 71 | 4 |
| Ipswich | 95 | 7 | RK Sunderland | 53 | 4 |
| Leeds | 86 | 3 | West Brom | 90 | 7 |
| Leicester | 71 | 3 | Wolves | 57 | 5 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Friday 30th March | |
Leeds v Preston | . |
Saturday 31st March | |
Barnsley v Derby | Hull v Southend |
Birmingham v Coventry | Ipswich v Plymouth |
Burnley v Luton | QPR v West Brom |
Cardiff v RK Sunderland | Stoke v Leicester |
Colchester v Norwich | Wolves v Southampton |
Crystal Palace v Sheffield Wed | . |