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In the Championship – Reading closing the gap
No one would have put a penny on Millwall, they are stranded at the bottom and had the three players out who were sent off at Burnley, but they came back to not only equalise but take the lead with two goals from Bruce Dyer.
Dyer is on loan from Stoke and only joined the London club because of the suspensions following their game at Burnley and these were his first goals for them. They couldn’t hold on though and Danny Webber snatched an equaliser with just six minutes to go. There was just time for home captain Chris Morgan to be sent off by referee Mark Clattenburg, probably the easiest red card decision of the weekend.
The dropped points enabled Reading to move even closer to the top and they made no mistake with a convincing win over a Hull City side who have slid into the bottom three after this their fourth successive defeat.
They had no answer to Reading for whom the two wide men Glen Little and particularly Bobby Convey were in top form. Both of them scored and watching Glen’s goal was like watching the Glen of old.
The top two remain well clear but Watford are now beginning to create the next gap, pulling away in third place. Their 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday didn’t was determined by some very dodgy refereeing and goalkeeping.
The first goal was very Maradonnaesque in that defender Clarke Carlisle scored with his hand, everyone on the ground saw it, in fact probably everyone in Watford, that was except the officials. Maybe the referee was badly positioned to see but his assistant certainly wasn’t, but like most assistant referees he chose not to get involved and kept his flag down.
It’s no surprise, we all know about the sportsmanship, or lack of it, from Boothroyd’s Watford and this was just another example. The other two goals in the game were both down to howlers from the two goalkeepers, Nicky Weaver and Ben Foster, both currently on loan from the two Manchester clubs.
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Hart had been booked, and would have already been off the field but for poor refereeing by Mick Fletcher, when he deliberately handled the ball as Palace played it down the left hand side. The referee gave the free kick but incredibly took no further action until Melin stepped in and came down the touchline, spoke to the referee who then sent off Hart.
The player was down injured and had to be stretchered to the dressing room having received his red card. It cost Brighton who went on to concede a late goal after looking like getting a draw with the score 2-2 at the time of the sending off.
The game of the weekend was played on the south coast, a bit further west as Southampton took on Leeds at St. Mary’s and led 3-0 by half time. With a scoreline like that at the interval you can hardly be confident of getting anything from the game and it was still the same scoreline with twenty minutes to go.
Then we had the transformation, inspired by David Healy who had just come on as a substitute. In a fifteen minute period Leeds went from 3-0 down to 4-3 up and took all three points.
It brought a sorry end to a sorry week at Southampton where coach Simon Clifford, appointed by Clive Woodward, walked out of the club as he and Harry Redknapp exchanged words. Woodward and Redknapp had their “We work well together” press conference recently but don’t believe it, there are problems ahead at St. Mary’s.
There are problems too in the Windy City as the fall out between manager Johan Boskamp and his staff Jan de Koning and John Rudge continues. Boskamp has threatened to walk out and although there appears to be an uneasy peace right now I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it.
Stoke did win their big local derby though, against Dario G’s Crewe. An Eddie Johnson goal from the hosts gave the scoreline a less realistic look after Stoke had gone two up and dominated the game.
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They came close to going in front against Wolves on Friday night, only the woodwork denied them, but once behind they were never in it and Wolves were not flattered by the 3-0 scoreline.
The Derby fans were even haunted by one of their own as Tom Huddlestone, now on loan at Wolves, scored his first ever goal in first team football. And despite his time at Derby there were no subdued celebrations.
Coventry boss Micky Adams accused Joe Royle of wearing blinkers after their 1-1 draw with Ipswich. Royle apparently said it was an injustice that Coventry got something from the game and Adams didn’t agree. Both sides did and the two goals came within a few minutes of each other with Gavin Williams, on loan from West Ham, giving Ipswich the lead before Gary McSheffrey equalised.
There were four goals at Plymouth and a busy Sunday for referee Steve Tanner who must have spent the entire day yesterday writing reports after yellow carding no fewer than twelve players, nine of them from QPR.
QPR boss Ian Holloway hardly mentioned the bookings, he was too busy describing his team’s performance. “I am embarrassed,” he said, “They are representing me and my club and that was unacceptable.” He insisted that his players report for duty on Sunday morning to watch the game on video. “I had to watch it so they can,” he said and then, clearly upset at certain individuals added, “I didn’t name names in the dressing room but I will tomorrow.”
For Plymouth it was what manager Tony Pulis described as their best performance since he took over and he was enthusing about Hungarian Akos Buzsaky who had an outstanding game. He also said that there had been interest from Premiership clubs and didn’t know whether he would be able to hang on to the midfielder, who was signed from Porto, come January.
Norwich reacted to the stinging criticism from manager Nigel Worthington with their best home performance of the season as they beat Luton 2-0 with goals from Andy Hughes, his first for the club, and Darren Huckerby.
News is not so good for Luton though. Do you remember when we were bottom of this league back in September? At the time Luton were 3rd some twelve points clear of us. Today they are below us, albeit on goal difference, and suffered their fourth successive defeat. They haven’t won since they beat Norwich on the night we won at Leicester.
Finally, it is like a bus service, you wait for ages and two come at once. Yes, Preston have won at home again, this time beating Cardiff 2-1. So what has Billy Davies done? He’s complained about the referee and said two crucial, and bad, decisions cost his side a more comfortable win. Mind you the referee was Richard Beeby.
We’ve got midweek fixtures this week, the last until the end of January. Those fixtures, plus the ones for next weekend, are shown below:
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 18th November | |
Derby 0 Wolves 3 | . |
Saturday 19th November | |
Burnley 1 Leicester 0 | Preston 2 Cardiff 1 |
Coventry 1 Ipswich 1 | Reading 3 Hull 1 |
Crewe 1 Stoke 2 | Sheffield Utd 2 Millwall 2 |
Norwich 2 Luton 0 | Southampton 3 Leeds 4 |
Plymouth 3 QPR 1 | Watford 2 Sheffield Wed 1 |
Sunday 20th November | |
Brighton 2 Crystal Palace 3 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Wolves 3-0 v Derby (away) |
Total goals scored | 41 |
Player scoring most goals | Bruce Dyer (Millwall) |
Highest Attendance | 30,173 - Southampton v Leeds |
Lowest Attendance | 7,273 - Brighton v Crystal Palace |
Total Yellow Cards | 44 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Plymouth v QPR (12Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
10 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) Ashley Young (Watford) |
8 | Rob Hulse (Leeds) Marlon King (Watford) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) |
7 | Steve Howard (Luton) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
6 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Dean Ashton (Norwich) Mark de Vries (Leicester) David Healy (Leeds) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
5 | Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed) Kevin Doyle (Reading) Warren Feeney (Luton) Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace) Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd) Leon Knight (Brighton) Jason Koumas (Cardiff) Leroy Lita (Reading) Gary McSheffrey (Coventry) Sam Parkin (Ipswich) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 34 | 1 | Millwall | 42 | 8 |
| Burnley | 31 | 3 | Norwich | 29 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 36 | 0 | Plymouth | 33 | 0 |
| Coventry | 40 | 3 | Preston | 35 | 2 |
| Crewe | 19 | 0 | QPR | 44 | 5 |
| Crystal Palace | 36 | 0 | Reading | 22 | 0 |
| Derby | 34 | 3 | Sheffield Utd | 29 | 1 |
| Hull | 22 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 25 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 29 | 3 | Southampton | 38 | 2 |
| Leeds | 30 | 1 | Stoke | 33 | 5 |
| Leicester | 36 | 1 | Watford | 32 | 1 |
| Luton | 24 | 3 | Wolves | 20 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 22nd November | |
Cardiff v Brighton | Luton v Crewe |
Crystal Palace v Coventry | Millwall v Norwich |
Hull v Southampton | QPR v Preston |
Ipswich v Reading | Sheffield Wed v Plymouth |
Leeds v Burnley | Stoke v Derby |
Leicester v Watford | Wolves v Sheffield Utd |
Saturday 26th November | |
Brighton v Derby | Plymouth v Reading |
Burnley v Crewe | Preston v Watford |
Coventry v Norwich | QPR v Hull |
Leicester v Sheffield Utd | Sheffield Wed v Stoke |
Luton v Crystal Palace | Wolves v Southampton |
Millwall v Leeds | . |