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In the Championship – it's going to be two from three
The worst news for Ipswich was the injury that forced Shefki Kuqi off at half time. He’ll be out for over a month with a punctured wound. The Tractor Boys have acted quickly and former player James Scowcroft, who played for Leicester against them, has now rejoined them on loan until the end of the season.
It was like early season for Wigan, a 3-1 win and the goals shared by their front two Jason Roberts and Nathan Ellington. They proved too strong for Crewe at the Alexandra Stadium, particularly in the second half.
That put Sunderland under pressure but they won more easily than the 4-2 scoreline against Watford would suggest. Sunderland actually led 4-0 until two late Bruce Dyer goals made the score look somewhat more respectable for the Hornets.
The star of the show for the Mackems was Marcus Stewart who scored a hat trick. It is just the seventh in the entire league all season and this is Stewart’s second, he hit three in their 4-0 win at Gillingham back in September.
Preston have sneaked into fourth place but they are eight points behind the next club. North End are on an amazing run and have won seven and drawn two of their last nine league games. They haven’t been beaten since we saw them off on the Turf. Even the Weary Whinger would have enjoyed this, well maybe not.
The latest win was away from home and this is their third successive victory on the road, that’s more away league wins in 2005 already than in 2004. The latest was a 2-1 victory at QPR with recent signing from Bury Dave Nugent coming on to score his first goal for the club.
That equalised Paul Furlong’s first half opener and eight minutes after levelling they won it with a second from Chris Lucketti. We were the last team to beat them, maybe we are going to be the next as well.
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I thought they looked a pretty inept side against us recently and without the goals from Dave Kitson they look to be struggling. They went down 3-1 at Leeds and the goal was nothing more than a last minute consolation from Lloyd Owusu.
They are struggling to score goals yet they have a striker that they won’t play because one more appearance by Shaun Goater means they have to pay KKMC a further £50,000. Maybe Chairman John Madejski is too pre-occupied with Cilla Black to notice what’s going on.
For Leeds it was a good day for new signing Rob Hulse, the striker Steve Cotterill was so keen to bring to Turf Moor. Leeds have him on loan, they cannot afford the £1.2 million West Brom are demanding for him, but he got off to a superb start with two cracking goals after David Healy had given them the lead.
Down at the bottom it was another bad day for Coventry as they were beaten easily by the Clarets and they edged that bit closer to the drop with Gillingham picking up a point in what was a less than exciting 0-0 draw at home to Millwall.
“A point is better than none,” said manager Stan Ternent, and there’s no doubt that if any of the bottom three get out of it, then it is likely to be Gillingham.
Plymouth are still struggling and could only get a point from their home game against bottom club Rotherham. The Millers actually went in front with a superb strike from Andy Monkhouse, his first goal of the season, but Plymouth got back into it with yet another penalty converted by Paul Wotton. The Clarets target rarely misses from the spot.
They could have won it too but for the assistant getting a decision wrong and ruling out a Dexter Blackstock winner for offside. Officials, wrong decision, whatever next?
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Although the Clarets failed to strengthen the squad, some clubs have and we’ve already mentioned loan deals for James Scowcroft and Rob Hulse to Ipswich and Leeds respectively.
Plymouth’s David Friio looks all set to join Nottingham Forest this week, to add to Forest’s capture of former Derby player Darryl Powell, but the Pilgrims themselves have been adding to their squad.
Dexter Blackstock arrived in the previous week from Southampton on loan and now they have signed Everton’s Nick Chadwick in a £250,000 deal. Bobby Williamson clearly thinks that to avoid an immediate return to League One.
Our league’s striker club have added another and this is a strange one in more ways than one. Neil Warnock has taken a player from Stan Ternent which must be something of a rarity and they pipped Wycombe for the signature of Tommy Johnson, the former Derby, Villa and Celtic striker.
The 34-year-old has struggled throughout his time at Priestfield Stadium with injuries and was released from his contract.
One other striker on the move was Southampton’s Kenwyne Jones who recently scored seven goals in seven appearances in a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday. He’s now joined the wonderfully attractive Tony Pulis inspired Stoke City.
With FA Cup replays on involving Derby, Sheffield United and West Ham there wasn’t a full fixture list and neither is there next week when some of us will be involved in low profile ties. There’s one midweek game to add to that when we go to Crewe and the league fixtures are below with the stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 12th February | |
Cardiff 2 Brighton 0 | Leeds 3 Reading 1 |
Coventry 0 Burnley 2 | Plymouth 1 Rotherham 1 |
Crewe 1 Wigan 3 | QPR 1 Preston 2 |
Gillingham 0 Millwall 0 | Sunderland 4 Watford 2 |
Ipswich 2 Leicester 1 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Burnley, Cardiff, Leeds, Sunderland and Wigan all won by two goals. |
Total goals scored | 21 |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) |
Highest Attendance | 30,034 - Leeds v Reading |
Lowest Attendance | 7,981 - Crewe v Wigan |
Total Yellow Cards | 31 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | QPR v Preston (6Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
18 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) - now with Norwich Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
15 | Darren Bent (Ipswich) Paul Furlong (QPR) Shefki Kuqi (Ipswich) Jason Roberts (Wigan) |
12 | Richard Cresswell (Preston) Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) David Healy (Leeds) - 5 with Preston Heidar Helguson (Watford) Dave Kitson (Reading) Kenny Miller (Wolves) |
11 | Grzegorz Rasiak (Derby) Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) |
10 | Robbie Blake (Burnley) - now Birmingham Marlon Harewood (West Ham) Lee McCulloch (Wigan) Peter Thorne (Cardiff) Danny Webber (Watford) |
9 | Tommy Smith (Derby) |
8 | Carl Cort (Wolves) Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) Barry Hayles (Millwall) Paul Shaw (Sheffield Utd) - 2 with Rotherham Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
7 | Ade Akinbiyi (Stoke) Bruce Dyer (Watford) Mark Rivers (Crewe) Marcus Tudgay (Derby) |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 15th February | |
Crewe v Burnley | . |
Friday 18th February | |
Preston v Ipswich | . |
Saturday 19th February | |
Brighton v Sunderland | Sheffield Utd v Crewe |
Millwall v Stoke | West Ham v Plymouth |
Reading v Coventry | Wigan v Leeds |
Rotherham v Derby | Wolves v Gillingham |