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In the Championship – No change at the top
Micky Adams happens to be a passionate Sheffield United fan and he realised that his side might just have knocked another nail in their promotion coffin with Gary McSheffrey and Dele Adebola getting the goals.
Coventry’s former Sheffield United midfielder Don Hutchison probably hit the nail on the head when he said that they fancied their chances when they saw the Sheffield United line up with Danny Webber on the right wing. He thought with three forwards on the pitch, and three more on the bench, that Neil Warnock was preoccupied in keeping too many players happy rather than playing his strongest team.
Sheffield United were fourteen points clear of Leeds at the beginning of February, now it is just five points, Leeds have a game in hand and still have to go to Bramall Lane. It could have been even closer too but Leeds missed that chance by failing to beat Norwich at Elland Road.
They were in front but two second half goals from Andy Hughes and Paul McVeigh turned the game on its head before the home side rescued a point in stoppage time with an Eddie Lewis free kick.
In what was billed as the game of the day, top played fourth, and fourth place Watford earned themselves a point at the Madejski and also became the first club to stop Reading scoring in a home game this season. Not only that, Reading had failed to score at Watford earlier in the season in another 0-0 draw and Southampton are the only other club to keep a clean sheet against them.
From top to bottom and we’ll take a look at the bottom four. None of them were able to pull away with a win but none of them lost either. So it is as you were and needless to say it was Millwall who were involved in the most controversial of games.
They fell behind early at Ipswich to an Owen Garvan goal and should have been beaten by the Suffolk side who failed to capitalise on their early goal. With five minutes to go Millwall equalised after a bout of head tennis in the Ipswich box and it was David Livermore who applied the finishing touch.
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Eventually Tony Craig came to take the throw, collected the ball and was immediately yellow carded by referee Brian Curson for time wasting. Unfortunately he’d already been booked and so he became Millwall’s fourteenth red card of the season.
Curson has clearly got it wrong, Craig had not been involved in the time wasting, but he’s refused to take another look at it and with no appeal permissible for two yellow cards, Craig will now serve a two match ban.
Crewe also came from behind after Danish striker Peter Madsen had scored his first goal for Southampton at the Alexandra Stadium, but with just twelve minutes to go Luke Rodgers grabbed an equaliser for Dario G’s bottom club.
At Hillsborough it was the other way round with struggling Sheffield Wednesday scoring first in their 1-1 draw against QPR. Deon Burton scored an early goal, his first since signing from Rotherham during the transfer window, but just before half time Marc Bircham equalised for the London side to complete the scoring.
That left Brighton, and for the Preston fans who travelled and were unable to see the events, it ended 0-0 in a game that was apparently similar to ours down there in January.
That draw meant Preston fell below the play off positions for the first time since the start of the year as Wolves followed up two goalless draws of their own with a 2-0 win against Cardiff.
Hungarian Denes Rosa joined Burton and Madsen in scoring a first goal, coming after eight games for Wolves following his transfer from Frenecvaros. A penalty in the second half converted by Kenny Miller gave them a comfortable win.
Cameron Jerome partnered Steven Thompson up front. We know Thompson well enough, he got two games on his debut for Cardiff against us but hasn’t scored since whilst Jerome does score goals but also goes out of his way to upset his team mates.
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Sadly the game at Wolves was marred by crowd trouble and Cardiff have been quick to condemn those who were involved. Cardiff have said, “The total disregard, threats and action of a few aimed at the catering staff, stewards and the police will not be tolerated and we as a club will totally support Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Midlands Police in identification of these individuals in the hope that they can be held fully responsible for their actions.”
Unfortunately Sam Hammam, Cardiff chairman has also spoken and said, “People will criticise because police are involved, but nobody should make sweeping statements about Cardiff fans. Our supporters are well respected. They had a bad reputation but are now accepted as among the best in the country.”
Back to the football and last night Palace stepped up their chase for a promotion with three more points at Stoke. They are certainly looking almost certain for a play off place but are unlikely to threaten the top two places. For Stoke it is home defeat number nine and no on has lost more home games than that.
Rob Kelly can’t go wrong as Leicester manager and they picked up another three points on the road at Luton. Youngster Chris O’Grady got the winner two minutes from the end. He hasn’t started a game yet for the Foxes but was in goalscoring form recently whilst on loan at Rushden & Diamonds.
Finally Hull City pulled themselves a few more points away from the bottom three with a 1-0 home win against Plymouth. Things hadn’t gone well in a goalless first half and the legend made a couple of half time substitutions. One of the players coming on was Craig Fagan and within ten minutes he’d scored the only goal of the game.
Preston play Ipswich tonight, this was the game called off a week last Saturday when the Deepdale pitch, which doesn’t benefit from an under soil heating system, was frozen and declared unfit. It’s the only midweek game with a full fixture list over the weekend.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 11th March | |
Brighton 0 Preston 0 | Leeds 2 Norwich 2 |
Coventry 2 Sheffield Utd 0 | Luton 1 Leicester 2 |
Crewe 1 Southampton 1 | Reading 0 Watford 0 |
Derby 3 Burnley 0 | Sheffield Wed 1 QPR 1 |
Hull 1 Plymouth 0 | Wolves 2 Cardiff 0 |
Ipswich 1 Millwall 1 | . |
Monday 13th March | |
Stoke 1 Crystal Palace 3 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Derby 3-0 v Burnley (home) |
Total goals scored | 25 |
Player scoring most goals | no player scored more than one goal |
Highest Attendance | 24,993 - Leeds v Norwich |
Lowest Attendance | 6,361 - Brighton v Preston |
Total Yellow Cards | 35 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Ipswich v Millwall (4Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
18 | Marlon King (Watford) |
16 | Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) |
15 | Ade Akinbiyi (Sheffield Utd) - 12 with Burnley Dave Kitson (Reading) |
14 | Kevin Doyle (Reading) |
12 | Steve Howard (Luton) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Gary McSheffrey (Coventry) Ashley Young (Watford) |
11 | Robbie Blake (Leeds) Rob Hulse (Leeds) Jason Koumas (Cardiff) Leroy Lita (Reading) |
10 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Dean Ashton (Norwich) Carl Cort (Wolves) Darius Henderson (Watford) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
9 | Paul Gallagher (Stoke) David Healy (Leeds) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) Steve Sidwell (Reading) |
8 | Sammy Bangoura (Stoke) Joey Gudjonsson (Leicester) Kenny Miller (Wolves) Dave Nugent (Preston) Matthew Spring (Watford) Rowan Vine (Luton) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
7 | Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed) Darren Huckerby (Norwich) Iain Hume (Leicester) Paul Ifill (Sheffield Utd) Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd) Ben May (Millwall) Paul McVeigh (Norwich) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Michael Ricketts (Burnley) - 5 with Cardiff |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 67 | 4 | Millwall | 84 | 14 |
| Burnley | 66 | 5 | Norwich | 63 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 61 | 2 | Plymouth | 54 | 1 |
| Coventry | 81 | 4 | Preston | 65 | 2 |
| Crewe | 31 | 2 | QPR | 71 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 73 | 3 | Reading | 40 | 0 |
| Derby | 59 | 5 | Sheffield Utd | 58 | 2 |
| Hull | 47 | 3 | Sheffield Wed | 48 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 50 | 4 | Southampton | 58 | 4 |
| Leeds | 64 | 2 | Stoke | 66 | 7 |
| Leicester | 71 | 5 | Watford | 54 | 5 |
| Luton | 48 | 5 | Wolves | 50 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 14th March | |
Preston v Ipswich | . |
Saturday 18th March | |
Coventry v Leeds | Plymouth v Cardiff |
Crystal Palace v Ipswich | QPR v Brighton |
Hull v Crewe | Reading v Wolves |
Luton v Derby | Sheffield Wed v Preston |
Millwall v Leicester | Stoke v Burnley |
Norwich v Sheffield Utd | . |
Monday 20th March | |
Southampton v Watford | . |