In the Championship – Pressman takes top billing

Kevin Pressman - not a day he will want to remember

But then came the moment of the afternoon just six minutes from half time when Preston equalised with a shot from over 100 yards. It was meant to be nothing other than a clearance from keeper Andy Lonergan but it reached the box at the other end on the second bounce and as Pressman slipped it sailed over him and into the net to give Preston a point.

Words cannot do it justice, and the keeper who was brought in to replace Danny Coyne I suspect will not be allowed to forget this one in a hurry.

Reading were supposedly enjoying life at the top of the league and Chairman John Madejski had been issuing a rallying call all week to get people to the match against the Clarets. He was confident that they could fill the stadium but the Reading public showed how much it matters by staying away and leaving the empty seats – empty.

Mind you, Wigan went back to the top with a 2-0 win over bottom club Rotherham and only 7,937 turned up to see it. You might be able to buy footballers, Whelan continues to do that, but this is proof that you cannot change a club and Wigan are a small time club with money to spend and nothing more.

Ipswich have gone back up to second with a late winner bringing them all three points at Coventry in yesterday’s televised game. It looked all set to end in a 1-1 draw when Coventry’s 18-year-old defender Matthew Mills placed the ball superbly into the bottom corner of his own goal giving the keeper no chance.

The young defender, on loan from Southampton, didn’t get a good touch on the ball as he tried to hit it out of play for a corner.

Congratulations to Teddy Sheringham, as well as putting more pressure on Wolves boss Dave Jones his goal, in West Ham’s 1-0 win over Wolves, was the 250^th league goal of his career.

Teddy Sheringham - 250 league goals

For all that’s bad in the game just visit the Britannia Stadium at Stoke. Pulis was up to his old tricks again behaving like some spoilt child in the technical area when he thought his side should have had a penalty against QPR.

But that was nothing compared to the goings on when Gerry Taggart was correctly sent off for raising his arm to Marc Bircham. Taggart would not go quietly and appeared to lay into Georges Santos.

There were problems in the tunnel area at half time but everything ended well because Stoke lost to the division’s form team.

It all left a sour taste though and QPR manager Ian Holloway was clearly shaken at the end and admitted that sometimes he really doesn’t like his job. He felt his side had done nothing wrong all afternoon, were nothing but victims, but were getting all the abuse.

Welcome to the House of Hell – nothing more than you would expect from a Pulis club.

Cardiff v Leeds brought out the police in some force, and the visiting fans were forced into travelling on organised coaches to this game. There were rumours that the transport was somewhat better than that provided for the Burnley fans in a similar situation when we went to Ewood.

The home side, next to bottom of the league, should have won it but missed a glorious opportunity when Andy Campbell took a dreadful penalty that Neil Sullivan saved with ease.

The point took them level with Forest though who lost yet again, this time at Millwall. The Taylor/Johnson partnership didn’t work at Burnley and has shown no sign of working at Forest.

Marlon King - partnered David Johnson up front for Forest

Watford are starting to slip after picking up just one point out of nine in the last week. Despite having the division’s leading scorer Danny Webber in the side they haven’t scored a single goal in the three games.

It ended with a 3-0 defeat at Crewe where Neil Sorvel scored twice for the home side. Sorvel is not exactly prolific in front of goal, these were his first since April 2003 and both were somewhat fortunate, going in off the shin.

Plymouth’s win could be considered dramatic. When the fourth official held the board up for added time they trailed 1-0 at home to Gillingham for whom Darius Henderson had scored just after half time.

There was relief at Home Park as Frenchman David Friio headed a stoppage time equaliser for the home side. And he then went and did it again to win it for them. I seem to remember a Burnley player scoring two goals at that end of the ground a few years ago that turned a game on its head. Mind you that win took us to Wembley.

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler, yes the one who isn’t going to play because he is concentrating on managing the side, was back in the starting line up after just three weeks.

Brighton and Sheffield United drew 1-1 as the home side again campaigned for permission to build a new stadium at Falmer. Something really does have to happen here and the Withdean is certainly not fit to host league football.

The home side led but Paul Shaw, the player with no future at Bramall Lane, has returned from his loan spell at Rotherham to score two important goals for the Blades and grabbed the equaliser from close range.

What a difference a week makes. Sunderland looked unstoppable and went to Leeds a week last Friday and won 1-0. Since then they have played twice and picked up just the one point and failed to score in either game.

Gary Breen - out suspended after appeal failed

Sunderland were without Gary Breen who was sent off at Bramall Lane along with Sheffield United’s Andy Gray. Although no one, including the referee, saw anything happen their appeals failed. Not bad that, guilty despite there being no evidence.

There have been some transfers this week starting with Norwegian Jo Tessem joining Millwall on loan from Southampton. He made his debut for the Lions in their win over Forest yesterday.

Adam Nowland is the only player to score against Burnley on their travels this season but it hasn’t kept him in the West Ham side. He’s at Gillingham now on loan and he too played his first game for his new club on Saturday at Plymouth.

Liverpool youngster Jon Otsemobor has gone to Crewe on loan. He has played four league games in the Premiership for Liverpool plus one whilst on loan at Bolton.

KK says that KKMC don’t loan out players but has done just that by letting Danish defender Mikkel Bischoff go to Wolves, he was an unused substitute at West Ham.

Finally Neil Warnock has been adding to his squad this week. The first new signing was Italian defender Emanuele Gabrieli who has signed until the end of January.

He was followed by Danny Cadamarteri who looks to be on a tour of Yorkshire clubs. Incredibly he has actually paid a transfer fee for the player who joined Leeds in the summer but couldn’t get a game. The £50,000 will be burning a hole in Blackwell’s pocket at Elland Road.

That’s it for two weeks now as we take our second break for the internationals – the next set of fixtures are shown below.