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In the Championship – Iwelumo's night
Hull actually took and early lead, through Jon Parkin, and at half time it was still 1-1, but they turned in a defensive performance that looked good enough for pantomime season in the second half and Iwelumo became the first player since Brian Deane two seasons ago to hit four in a Championship game.
Leicester and Ipswich were two more sides to take the lead away from home but go on to lose. A Patrick McCarthy goal gave Leicester the lead at Norwich, where the fans were on this occasion getting behind the side, but an equaliser right on half time from Carl Robinson gave the home side the impetus and they controlled the second half and went on to win the game.
But what about Ipswich, they had lost their last two away games in stoppage time and they went and did it again just as it looked as though they had got themselves a point at Derby. They were somewhat fortunate to be in front at half time, just a couple of minutes before the interval the home side were very fortunate to have a Steve Howard goal disallowed and within seconds Gary Roberts, on loan from League Two strugglers Accrington, scored at the other end.
But Derby came back, drew level, and just as it looked as though they had run out of ideas Ipswich fell in stoppage time again when Arturo Lupoli grabbed the winner with referee Lee just about to bring proceedings to an end.
Just when I thought I'd got things sorted in this division results start to surprise me again. I wasn't surprised to see West Brom play so well against a week and a half ago, I've tipped them for promotion since before the season got underway. I was surprised to see them go and lose their next game but now they've gone and lost at Sheffield Wednesday, and taken something of a battering apparently.
How long has Tony Mowbray been in charge? I'll remind you, six games, but it hasn't stopped the fans making a quick decision and the first chants of ‘Mowbray Out' were heard at Hillsborough. Has he upset the fans? Has he upset the dressing room? Whatever it is, this squad of players should be doing a lot better than they are.
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Beat Burnley at your peril. Not only have West Brom gone on and lost two games, but Cardiff and Birmingham haven't met with much success. Cardiff haven't scored a goal since they beat us, and have picked up just one point from three games. Suddenly the devastating Michael Chopra, who used to play for Newcastle, is missing chances. He missed an easy one at Stoke in the first half when the game was pretty even.
It was even in the second half too, but then Stoke hit three goals in five minutes and that was that. Stephen McPhail was sent off again near the end. I think we all remember how he was rightly sent off at Colchester but the FAW appallingly squashed it to allow him to play against Burnley. He won't get away with this one, and he'll serve a three match ban. It should have been four matches, so he's benefiting again form that scandalous decision by the FAW.
Dave Jones should be thanking his lucky starts that his club can get away with this crazy loophole and keep quiet but he left the Potteries ranting on about Lee Hendrie going down as if he was shot. Incredibly the Welsh club have even had the nerve to appeal against this one, even they rejected it. Jones was right, Hendrie did go down as if he had been shot, and his behaviour on the touchline later wasn't very good, but McPhail raised his hand and that's a red.
That defeat meant they lost top place, and I suspect they might not be getting it back any time soon. It's Preston on top now but they couldn't beat Coventry at Deepdale and in fact were fortunate to get a point even though they went in front through a David Nugent goal. It was Dele Adebola again on the mark for the Sky Blues earning them a point.
Preston's place at the top might have only been 24 hours, I certainly expected it to be that with Birmingham playing at Southampton last night. I was surprised to hear Birmingham had gone behind early again, and stunned when they went 3-0 down inside the first twenty minutes. It was Kenwyne Jones doing the damage, he scored the first two and played a part in the second.
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There was a rare event at Home Park, Plymouth won a home game. Still, we shouldn't have been surprised, Luton were the visitors. It's played seven, lost seven now for the Hatters with no fewer than eighteen goals conceded. They are hovering ever closer to that bottom three and I am wondering now just how much longer Mike Newell might have left. He got a standing ovation from the home fans when we won there recently, but he's not flavour of the month in the board room and his time might now be very close to running out.
It wasn't so much the Uriah Rennie Show at Loftus Road but he and his officials upset the home fans enough for them to throw plastic bottles at them. As it happened they got the decisions correct as RK Sunderland twice scored goals that QPR thought were offside. They weren't and that meant two home defeats in four days for John Gregory's team.
They are just above Barnsley now who won again on Tuesday, this time against bottom club Southend. Brian Howard gave Barnsley the lead and one of their loan signings Kyel Reid put the result beyond doubt when he added a third three minutes from time. That left Reid just enough time to get himself a second yellow card from referee Graham Laws for kicking the ball away.
That leaves Wolves, for the second time this week they took the lead at home but failed to hold on to it, and it was one of their old boys who scored the equaliser. Lewis Gobern had put the home side in front but Dougie Freedman's goal gave the Legend what he described as an acceptable result.
No Friday or Sunday games this week, they're all being played on Saturday afternoon, and apart from Leeds v Barnsley, where the police have brought the relegation battle forward to noon, all of them are kicking off at 3:00 p.m.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 28th November | |
Barnsley 2 Southend 0 | Preston 1 Coventry 1 |
Burnley 2 Leeds 1 | QPR 1 RK Sunderland 2 |
Colchester 5 Hull 1 | Sheffield Wed 3 West Brom 1 |
Norwich 3 Leicester 1 | Stoke 3 Cardiff 0 |
Plymouth 1 Luton 0 | Wolves 1 Crystal Palace 1 |
Wednesday 29th November | |
Derby 2 Ipswich 1 | Southampton 4 Birmingham 3 |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Colchester 5-1 v Hull (home) |
Total goals scored | 40 |
Player scoring most goals | 4 - Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) |
Highest Attendance | 23,896 - Norwich v Leicester |
Lowest Attendance | 5,373- Colchester v Hull |
Total Yellow Cards | 46 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Barnsley v Southend (6Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
13 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) |
11 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) |
10 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) Andy Gray (Burnley) |
9 | Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) |
8 | Steve Howard (Derby) Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) Alan Lee (Ipswich) Rowan Vine (Luton) |
7 | Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham) Iain Hume (Leicester) |
6 | Patrick Agyemang (Preston) Dexter Blackstock (QPR) Freddy Eastwood (Southend) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) David Healy (Leeds) Brian Howard (Barnsley) Arturo Lupoli (Derby) Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham) Jon Parkin (Hull) Marcus Tudgay (Sheffield Wed) |
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 |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 31 | 4 | Luton | 19 | 3 |
| Birmingham | 41 | 4 | Norwich | 34 | 3 |
| Burnley | 32 | 6 | Plymouth | 36 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 31 | 5 | Preston | 33 | 2 |
| Colchester | 23 | 1 | QPR | 39 | 0 |
| Coventry | 38 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 33 | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 27 | 0 | Southampton | 30 | 0 |
| Derby | 47 | 2 | Southend | 36 | 2 |
| Hull | 40 | 2 | Stoke | 34 | 2 |
| Ipswich | 61 | 3 | RK Sunderland | 33 | 3 |
| Leeds | 46 | 2 | West Brom | 52 | 2 |
| Leicester | 39 | 2 | Wolves | 27 | 2 |
This Week's Fixtures | |
Saturday 2nd December | |
Birmingham v Plymouth | Leeds v Barnsley |
Cardiff v Colchester | Leicester v Sheffield Wed |
Coventry v Stoke | Luton v Preston |
Crystal Palace v QPR | Southend v Wolves |
Hull v Southampton | RK Sunderland v Norwich |
Ipswich v Burnley | West Brom v Derby |