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In the Championship – Palace at the top
That came about when Geoff Horsfield was sent off following an off the ball incident with Palace's Mark Hudson. It was spotted by the assistant referee rather than referee Rob Styles who was too busy yellow carding players for taking free kicks a few seconds too early. The decision to send the striker off was the correct one and as well as leaving his side to battle without him for 75 minutes, he will now miss Leeds' next three games.
Whilst looking at the Leeds strikers, it was noticeable that fifteen goals per season Ian Moore got on for his third substitute appearance of the season and yet Robbie Blake, for the third time, didn't get a kick. Well it is Blackwell.
Birmingham should have made it three wins out of three but had to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw against Stoke at the Windy City. They came closest to breaking the deadlock after being awarded a second half penalty but Steve Simonsen got down well to his right to save Mikael Forssell's effort.
Luton really should have been on nine points. They led 2-0 at Carrow Road with two good goals from Rowan Vine and Dean Morgan and looked set to top the league. Some bad defending allowed the home side back into the game and they managed to concede three goals, all of which should have been prevented, in a fourteen minute spell.
A week on Saturday my alarm clock will be set early for our trip to Crystal Palace, so I can sympathise with the Plymouth fans who boarded their coaches at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday for the long journey to Sunderland. The last thing you want after a marathon like that is to get off to a bad start but that's exactly what Argyle did, going behind to a Daryl Murphy goal in the very first minute.
They came storming back and were 2-1 in front by half time only for the home side to equalise in the second half. Just as it looked to be heading for a draw they grabbed a winner through Nick Chadwick to leave Sunderland pointless after three games.
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The first of them from Matt Oakley, which gave Derby an early lead, was offside and whilst the winner came from a very dubious penalty indeed. Hull boss Phil Parkinson described the handball decision by referee Woolmer as ridiculous and there's no doubt we would have been very upset if that had been given against us. Derby boss, our old friend Billy Davies, made no comment.
Colchester are also down there without a point but they held a half time lead against fellow promoted club Barnsley. The Tykes came back with two second half goals to win it. Colchester's Richard Garcia and Kem Izzet along with Barnsley's Sam Togwell all received yellow cards from referee Graham Poll in what was his first game since the World Cup. We can confirm that none of them were carded twice and certainly not three times.
Ipswich are the fourth club without a point, a side that seem very much to be on a downturn. They were easily beaten by Leicester at the Crisp Bowl, a game that gave the home side their first points of the season.
Apparently we'd played two poor sides before Saturday but Leicester were soon into winning ways after losing against us and QPR, our opening day opponents, have now collected four points from two games since. They were winners on Saturday, beating Southend 2-0 at Loftus Road.
QPR did have two new signings in their line up – defender Zesh Rehmann who signed from Fulham on a free transfer, and striker Dexter Blackstock, signed two days earlier from Southampton.
Blackstock's former club Southampton were involved in a 0-0 draw at home against West Brom. Both are emerging as promotion favourites but it proved to be a close game. It does take some believing that West Brom finished the game with eleven men, John Hartson should have received a red card from referee Tanner for a high challenge that saw his boot make contact with his opponent's chest.
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Dave Nugent got his and Preston's first goals of the season as they came back from a goal down to beat Wolves at Molineux. He got the first two goals and his manager Paul Simpson said after the game that he expected him to score with the television cameras being there. Simpson also said they did not want to lose the striker, time will tell.
That just leaves Cardiff and Coventry at Ninian Park and a game won 1-0 by the home side. Coventry nearly held out for a draw and had they got it would have had goalkeeper Andy Marshall to thank after a fantastic display. He was beaten just the once, by Michael Chopra who scored his first goal for his new club.
We've nothing in midweek, but a full programme at the weekend with the game between Coventry and Leicester leading the way in front of the television cameras on Friday. The fixtures can be found below after the weekend stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 11th August | |
Wolves 1 Preston 3 | . |
Saturday 12th August | |
Cardiff 1 Coventry 0 | QPR 2 Southend 0 |
Colchester 1 Barnsley 2 | Sheffield Wed 1 Burnley 1 |
Hull 1 Derby 2 | Southampton 0 West Brom 0 |
Leicester 3 Ipswich 1 | Stoke 0 Birmingham 0 |
Norwich 3 Luton 2 | Sunderland 2 Plymouth 3 |
Sunday 13th August | |
Crystal Palace 1 Leeds 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Leicester 3-1 v Ipswich (home) |
Total goals scored | 30 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Dave Nugent (Preston) |
Highest Attendance | 24,377 - Sunderland v Plymouth |
Lowest Attendance | 4,249 - Colchester v Barnsley |
Total Yellow Cards | 37 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most cards in a game | Crystal Palace v Leeds (4Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
3 | Jon Parkin (Hull) |
2 | Gareth Bale (Crystal Palace) Jay Bothroyd (Wolves) Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) Freddie Eastwood (Southend) John Hartson (West Brom) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) Brian Howard (Barnsley) Steve Jones (Burnley) Daryl Murphy (Sunderland) Dave Nugent (Preston) Mark Richards (Barnsley) Martin Rowlands (QPR) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 3 | 0 | Luton | 5 | 0 |
| Birmingham | 4 | 1 | Norwich | 3 | 0 |
| Burnley | 7 | 1 | Plymouth | 8 | 0 |
| Cardiff | 4 | 0 | Preston | 9 | 1 |
| Colchester | 4 | 0 | QPR | 4 | 0 |
| Coventry | 4 | 0 | Sheffield Wed | 2 | 1 |
| Crystal Palace | 4 | 0 | Southampton | 2 | 0 |
| Derby | 6 | 0 | Southend | 1 | 0 |
| Hull | 6 | 0 | Stoke | 4 | 0 |
| Ipswich | 6 | 0 | Sunderland | 1 | 0 |
| Leeds | 8 | 1 | West Brom | 6 | 0 |
| Leicester | 5 | 0 | Wolves | 3 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Friday 18th August | |
Coventry v Leicester | . |
Saturday 19h August | |
Barnsley v Southampton | Luton v Stoke |
Birmingham v Crystal Palace | Plymouth v Sheffield Wed |
Burnley v Wolves | Preston v QPR |
Derby v Norwich | Southend v Sunderland |
Ipswich v Hull | West Brom v Colchester |
Leeds v Cardiff | . |