In the Championship – Glen scores again

Last updated : 28 November 2005 By Tony Scholes
Glen Little - superb goal to give Reading the lead
They have not been ordinary goals or scrappy goals either, but goals that have reminded us of the Glen of about four years ago, when he was terrorising defenders as we stormed to the top of this league. Saturday’s was amongst his best as he chipped the ball from the corner of the box after beating two men.

It gave Reading the lead at Plymouth and Kevin Doyle added a second to complete their fifth successive win and gain revenge against the only team to have beaten them this season. They are looking more than a good bet for the Premiership already and although I’m sure we have no real desire to see Reading go up I am equally sure there will be many of us who would not begrudge Glen his chance of playing at the top level.

The reason they have pulled clear is because Sheffield United have suddenly lost the ability to win games since the return from the international break. They’d had two draws but it went worse on Saturday when they were beaten 4-2 at Leicester.

This was a result I found hard to believe as I left the Turf on Saturday. Having seen Dion Dublin and Mark de Vries a week earlier I just wondered how on earth they had managed to score four. The answer was that neither of these two played, although the latter came on as a sub in the closing stages.

Iain Hume got a couple of goals for the home side who actually led 4-1 with the game in stoppage time. It came with suggestions that this could have been Neil Warnock’s last game in charge with Portsmouth looking to take him as a replacement for Alain Perrin but he said after the game that he would still be in charge for the Sheffield derby this weekend. He didn’t confirm he would still be the Blades’ boss for our visit the week after.

Luton have picked up again and were worthy winners against Crystal Palace at Kenilworth Road. They were two up within the first twenty minutes with Rowan Vine, only brought back into the side this week, scoring again. Palace never looked as though they would get back into the game after that start.

When you are at the bottom of the league it is always said you always suffer from all the bad luck going and that could certainly apply to Millwall after Saturday’s home defeat against Leeds. They’d held Blackwell’s team right into stoppage time when a David Healy shot was causing no problems until it took a massive deflection off Ben May and the only goal of the game.

Ben May - last minute deflection cost Millwall a point against Leeds
It leaves the London club still rooted to the bottom of the league but there has been some good news for them this week with the partially deaf Theo Paphitis finally bowing out as reluctant chairman and replaced by Peter de Savary. The new man in charge is apparently a Fulham fan who was a member of the British team in the 1983 America’s Cup.

They might have a new chairman but they have been struggling for a goalkeeper. Andy Marshall is now out injured, Terry Masterton has left the club, Paul Jones has returned to Wolves and although they have Birmingham keeper Colin Doyle on loan the two clubs meet this week in the Carling Cup. Today, they have signed Chelsea’s Lenny Pidgley on an emergency seven day loan.

As for Leeds, Ian Moore made a dramatic impact on the game. He came on for Robbie Blake on 89 minutes and got himself a yellow card before the end. The 15 goals a season striker has actually scored 1 goal in 15 months.

There’s still no end to the falling out at Stoke but it doesn’t seem to be having much effect on the results. They won 2-0 at Sheffield Wednesday and this was their fourth win in five games with striker Sam Bangoura finding the net again. It is anyone’s guess whether Johan Boskamp will still be in charge next week. He said he would like to stay but it could be out of his hands.

Preston couldn’t make it three successive home wins, and in fact they had to come from behind to get themselves a point against a very much back in form Watford side. This is one team I’ve waited to see drop after an initial good start but they are still there in third place and were soon in front at Deepdale through Matthew Spring who managed to score this time even when the opposition still had a goalkeeper.

The lead didn’t last long and it was full back Callum Davidson who scored for the second time in a week to earn his side a point, It is ten games without defeat now for Preston although only three of those games have been won. They have lost two strikers over the last few days though, Jemal Johnson has returned to Ewood and Patrick Agyemang has been ruled out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury, I would have thought that was a bonus.

Dexter Blackstock - no goals for Derby at Brighton
Besides Preston, both Wolves and Southampton are adept at drawing games and before Saturday had drawn 19 between them including the opening day encounter that ended 0-0. There was to be no change on Saturday either and it ended goalless again at Molineux.

The Southampton fans don’t appear to be too impressed that they are struggling to score goals yet in the same league have recently seen two of their players, Dexter Blackstock and Nathan Dyer, scoring goals for other clubs.

As we know Dyer scored again on Saturday but it was a blank day for Blackstock, playing on the south coast at Brighton for Derby. This game too ended without a goal.

Hull haven’t won for over a month but looked well on the way to all three points at Loftus Road against a QPR side who are also in poor form. The visitors led 2-0 with goals five minutes before and after half time, the second coming from new signing Billy Paynter, his first for the club.

It all went wrong for them and in the end they were happy to settle for a point. Within fifteen minutes of going 2-0 up it was all square with two goals from Gareth Ainsworth and then they had to play the last twenty minutes with ten men when goalkeeper Boaz Myhill was sent off for handling the ball outside the box.

It would have been a harsh decision had he handled it over the line but the ball looked to be inside the box. Legend Peter Taylor said, “My players are telling me that Bo didn’t handle outside the box. If I see the video and that’s the case then I’ll go mad.” I think we can prepare for him going mad.

That leaves Coventry v Norwich and if you are on a bad run then a good start must be something of a dream. That’s exactly what Coventry got with Gary McSheffrey and Dele Adebola giving them a 2-0 lead after just ten minutes. They still didn’t win though with Norwich scoring towards the end of each half to earn themselves a point. Coventry remain just outside the bottom three.

Tonight sees Cardiff take on Ipswich in front of the television cameras and that is the only midweek game. The weekend fixtures, including our first visit to Southampton since 1977, are shown below.

The Weekend Results

Saturday 26th November

Brighton 0 Derby 0

Plymouth 0 Reading 2

Burnley 3 Crewe 0

Preston 1 Watford 1

Coventry 2 Norwich 2

QPR 2 Hull 2

Leicester 4 Sheffield Utd 2

Sheffield Wed 0 Stoke 2

Luton 2 Crystal Palace 0

Wolves 0 Southampton 0

Millwall 0 Leeds 1

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The Weekend Stats

Biggest win

Burnley 3-0 v Crewe (home)

Total goals scored

26

Player scoring most goals
2

Gareth Ainsworth (QPR)
Iain Hume (Leicester)
John Spicer (Burnley)

Highest Attendance

24,628 - Wolves v Southampton

Lowest Attendance

6,855 - Brighton v Derby

Total Yellow Cards

51

Total Red Cards

1

Most cards in a game

Leicester v Sheffield Utd (10Y)

The leading scorers (league only)

10

Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley)
Cameron Jerome (Cardiff)

9

Carl Cort (Wolves)
Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd)
Marlon King (Watford)
Ashley Young (Watford)

8

Rob Hulse (Leeds)

7

Dele Adebola (Coventry)
Kevin Doyle (Reading)
David Healy (Leeds)
Steve Howard (Luton)
Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace)

6

Dean Ashton (Norwich)
Sambegou Bangoura (Stoke)
Mark de Vries (Leicester)
Inigo Idiakez (Derby)
Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace)
Leroy Lita (Reading)
Gary McSheffrey (Coventry)
Garreth O'Connor (Burnley)
Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd)

5

Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed)
Warren Feeney (Luton)
Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace)
Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd)
Leon Knight (Brighton)
Jason Koumas (Cardiff)
Glen Little (Reading)
Dean Morgan (Luton)
Dave Nugent (Preston)
Sam Parkin (Ipswich)
Matthew Spring (Watford)
Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd)

Disciplinary Record (all games)

Club

Y

R

Club

Y

R

Brighton

37

1

Millwall

45

8

Burnley

35

3

Norwich

35

2

Cardiff

37

0

Plymouth

35

0

Coventry

46

3

Preston

38

2

Crewe

20

1

QPR

47

5

Crystal Palace

38

0

Reading

24

0

Derby

39

3

Sheffield Utd

35

1

Hull

23

3

Sheffield Wed

26

1

Ipswich

29

3

Southampton

40

3

Leeds

36

1

Stoke

39

5

Leicester

42

1

Watford

38

2

Luton

26

3

Wolves

25

1

The Week's Fixtures

Monday 28th November

Cardiff v Ipswich

.

Saturday 3rd December

Coventry v Plymouth

Leeds v Leicester

Crewe v Preston

Reading v Luton

Crystal Palace v Millwall

Sheffield Utd v Sheffield Wed

Derby v Norwich

Southampton v Burnley

Hull v Cardiff

Stoke v QPR

Ipswich v Wolves

Watford v Brighton