In the Championship – Not fit to wear the shirt

Last updated : 21 August 2006 By Tony Scholes
Niall Quinn - a lot of my players are not good enough
It was all supposed to be positive up at the Stadium of Light this season, Bob Murray had been ousted as Chairman to be replaced by former striker Niall Quinn and he was all set to bring in a big name manager. For now that manager is himself, assisted by Bobby Saxton who has returned to the club after four years, and things are hardly going well.

There's even talk of Peter Reid going back and Quinn is trying to sign former striker Kevin Phillips. If they go back in time much more they'll have Bally leading them out again. Quinn has admitted a lot of the players are just not good enough and will be doing something about it.

Meanwhile, and I still cannot get my head round this one, Sam Allardyce is once again being touted for the manager's job on Wearside. Maybe he's ready to leave Bolton, maybe not, but surely he won't want to drop back down out of the Premiership.

The only other side now without a point are Colchester, who are finding life at this level a bit tough. They were battered somewhat by West Brom on Saturday but were very unfortunate to go behind from the penalty spot. The incident which persuaded referee Taylor to award the Baggies a penalty was outside the box and in any case was a free kick the other way with John Hartson shirt pulling.

Decisions tend to go against you when you are down near the bottom but having gone in at half time two goals down they did fight back during the second half and pulled one goal back.

Ipswich and Hull were the other two teams without a point but that was always going to change as they met at Portman Road. As it turned out both of them got off the mark with a point each from what proved to be a dull goalless draw.

Derby and Norwich were also involved in a goalless encounter at Pride Park, but it was the home side who came closest to breaking the deadlock. Summer signing Steve Howard, still looking for his first goal for his new club, hit an effort against the bar.

The third 0-0 draw came at Coventry on Friday night as they were held by Leicester in a game that was hardly a good advertisement for televised football. Coventry, without Gary McSheffrey who has gone to Birmingham for £4 million making him the most expensive player in the Championship, struggled to break down Leicester. Adams is looking to do something about it and has lodged a £1 million bid for Sheffield United's Ade Akinbiyi.

Sebastian Larsson - his goal took Birmingham to the top
Steve Bruce and Birmingham aren't under any pressure, but owner David Sullivan has made it clear that they have to be promoted. He has put his money where is mouth though in allowing Bruce to spend £4 million on McSheffrey.

He didn't score on Saturday but having gone behind to Bruce's old club Crystal Palace they came back to win the game 2-1. The two goals came from Arsenal players who are both on loan at St Andrew's. Firstly 18 year old Dane Nicklas Bendtner pulled them level before Sebastian Larsson, a 21 year old Swede, hit home a last minute winner to take his side to the top of the league.

There was some fun though, last season's captain Kenny Cunningham slammed the club on his departure and his replacement, former Blackburn midfielder Damien Johnson, had something of a tantrum on the pitch. He didn't take kindly to being substituted and threw down his captain's arm band onto the ground before taking off his shirt and doing likewise with that. I'm sure that went down well with the fans, and he's been forced into an apology today.

If they've been having fun at Birmingham then they certainly have at Leeds where Chairman Ken Bates has been giving the press plenty of column inches. He's in dispute with Chelsea over the poaching of youngsters, something I fully support Bates on, but maybe he went a bit too far last week when he called their directors a set of shysters from Siberia.

Hardly surprising then that Chelsea didn't like it and they reported him to the FA. That didn't worry the former Chelsea chief who said he hadn't laughed so much since his ma caught her tits in the mangle.

To Chelsea we can now add Cardiff, whose Chief Executive is Peter Ridsdale who decided to celebrate his new club's 1-0 win at Elland Road. It has been alleged that Bates threw him out and banned him from the ground. Bates probably should be more concerned at what's going on under his own nose, I wonder how much longer he'll persevere with Blackwell.

Another going back to his former club was Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Sturrock who took his current side to Plymouth. They went a goal down to a Paul Wotton penalty but stormed back to win it 2-1, their first win of the season.

Marlon Beresford - gave two goals away against Stoke
Preston are picking up injuries quicker than points just now and it was one each this week. Kelvin Wilson was the player to get injured whilst they collected one point from a 1-1 home draw against QPR. It was nearly nothing, only a late Paul McKenna goal saved them from defeat after they had been behind to a goal from former player Gareth Ainsworth in the first few minutes.

The 2-2 draw at Luton featured a couple of ex-Clarets. Goalkeeper Marlon Beresford had something of a nightmare and was responsible for both Stoke goals, the second of which was scored by Luke Chadwick. Thankfully for Luton they scored two of their own in between to earn a point.

And finally the same result at Oakwell where Barnsley entertained Southampton. Both sides had scored once before winning penalties for handball. Southampton were unlucky, Jermaine Wright didn't appear to make any contact with the ball for the Barnsley spot kick although there could be no argument when referee Dean evened it up at the other end.

It has all left Birmingham and Cardiff at the top, both on ten points, on a day when we would have gone back to the top had we beaten Wolves. Now we face a trip to Palace and the full weekend fixtures, over four days, are shown below.

The Weekend Results

Friday 18th August

Coventry 0 Leicester 0

.

Saturday 19th August

Barnsley 2 Southampton 2

Luton 2 Stoke 2

Birmingham 2 Crystal Palace 1

Plymouth 1 Sheffield Wed 2

Burnley 0 Wolves 1

Preston 1 QPR 1

Derby 0 Norwich 0

Southend 3 Sunderland 1

Ipswich 0 Hull 0

West Brom 2 Colchester 1

Leeds 0 Cardiff 1

.

The Weekend Stats

Biggest win

Southend 3-1 v Sunderland (home)

Total goals scored

25

Player scoring most goals
2

Adam Barrett (Southend)
Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)

Highest Attendance

22,196 - Derby v Norwich

Lowest Attendance

7,727 - Luton v Stoke

Total Yellow Cards

35

Total Red Cards

1

Most cards in a game

Derby v Norwich (5Y)

The leading scorers (league only)

3

Jon Parkin (Hull)
Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)
Mark Richards (Barnsley)

2

Gareth Bale (Crystal Palace)
Leon Barnett (Luton)
Adam Barrett (Southend)
Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham)
Jay Bothroyd (Wolves)
Robert Earnshaw (Norwich)
Freddie Eastwood (Southend)
John Hartson (West Brom)
Paul Hayes (Barnsley)
Barry Hayles (Plymouth)
Brian Howard (Barnsley)
Steve Jones (Burnley)
Jobie McAnuff (Crystal Palace)
Daryl Murphy (Sunderland)
Dave Nugent (Preston)
Martin Rowlands (QPR)

Disciplinary Record (all games)

Club

Y

R

Club

Y

R

Barnsley

4

0

Luton

5

0

Birmingham

5

1

Norwich

5

0

Burnley

7

1

Plymouth

9

0

Cardiff

4

1

Preston

10

1

Colchester

4

0

QPR

4

0

Coventry

6

0

Sheffield Wed

5

1

Crystal Palace

4

0

Southampton

4

0

Derby

9

0

Southend

1

0

Hull

8

0

Stoke

6

0

Ipswich

7

0

Sunderland

3

0

Leeds

11

1

West Brom

9

0

Leicester

7

0

Wolves

7

1

The Week's Fixtures

Friday 25th August

QPR v Ipswich

.

Saturday 26th August

Cardiff v Birmingham

Norwich v Barnsley

Colchester v Derby

Southampton v Preston

Crystal Palace v Burnley

Stoke v Plymouth

Hull v Coventry

Wolves v Luton

Leicester v Southend

.

Sunday 27th August

Sheffield Wed v Leeds

.

Monday 28th August

Sunderland v West Brom

.