In the Championship – Ready for the window

Last updated : 31 December 2006 By Tony Scholes
Robbie Elliott - on his way to Leeds
The crazy system invented by the ever more ridiculous Sepp Blatter means clubs will be moving swiftly to stock up or reduced their numbers over the next month.

One club expected to be involved early is Leeds United and it is hardly a surprise given their recent results. Players are sure to leave Elland Road whilst others will arrive, led by former Bolton and Newcastle full back Robbie Elliott who is set to sign tomorrow.

They ended the year with a 3-1 defeat against a Stoke side who were saying goodbye to Lee Hendrie who was playing his last game for them, and also to Patrik Berger who will be gone next time they play at the Windy City.

They had too much for a Leeds side despite the fact that their 15 goals-per-season striker Ian Moore netted an equaliser. It was his first goal in two months, and his second league goal for the Yorkshire club in almost two years. That brought them level but some quite funny defending from the hapless Ugo Ehiogu in the second off allowed Stoke to go on and win the game with ease.

Roy Keane's Sunderland are another side expected to make early moves into the market. The manager billed their home game against Preston as a must win game. That is always a serious mistake by a manager, especially when his side doesn't win it, and they didn't. Preston's David Nugent scored the only goal of the game to keep our close neighbours in second place.

Nugent wants to stay at Deepdale, manager Paul Simpson wants him to stay, so why is there all this speculation? Former Blackburn manager Don Mackay was there watching him for Middlesbrough and there is every chance that he'll go before the end of next month.

Derby are right on Preston's tail but not for long if they don't strengthen the squad, so says the little man in charge. He'll get his strengthening, don't worry about that, he always gets his own way when he stamps his feet. They beat Plymouth yesterday with a Morten Bisgaard goal that was created by two of their loan players Jon Stead and Arturo Lupoli. The Italian Lupoli could be the last player he gets from Wenger who is upset at how little his player is being used.

Colchester won at home. No surprise there, that's what they always do and this was their eleventh in succession. They needed a large slice of luck to complete the win over Wolves which saw goals from both of their strikers Jamie Cureton and Chris Iwelumo although Iwelumo will wonder how on earth he wasn't pulled up by referee Richard Beeby for the most blatant of handballs.

Diomansy Kamara - put West Brom in front after they won a controversial penalty
Yes, that's right it was Beeby getting it wrong again. Wolves boss Mick McCarthy said after the game that Beeby had apologised to him, some consolation as they made their return to the Midlands without any points.

Another referee courting controversy was Clive Penton when he awarded West Brom a somewhat dubious looking penalty kick. Diomansy Kamara missed it but hit home the rebound and Jason Koumas made sure they won all three points with his seventh league goal in six weeks, some going for a midfield player.

One referee who did get it right and should be applauded is Phil Crossley. Following a torrential downpour just ahead of kick off he deemed the St Mary's pitch unplayable. Instead of calling it off, and with full agreement with the two clubs Southampton and Leicester, he allowed the groundstaff an extra 45 minutes to get the pitch fit and the game was allowed to go ahead.

Southampton were the winners with goals from Pele, his first in English football, and David Prutton who scored for the first time in two years. Prutton, who looks set to return to Nottingham Forest, was on as a substitute for our former loan player Nathan Dyer. Dyer was in for the first time in six weeks but left the field with a suspected ankle fracture.

Birmingham are the league leaders but you wouldn't have thought so watching them on Friday night on a dreadful St Andrew's pitch against struggling Luton. It all ended in a draw when sub Neil Danns scored a late equaliser for the home side but Birmingham were very fortunate indeed to earn a point, Luton were the better side.

Cardiff, who like us have seen a dramatic loss of form, were held at home again this time against Crystal Palace, and they were lucky. Palace would have won this but for a strange offside decision ruling out a Clinton Morrison goal. Still Cardiff are going to be a massive club, Peter Ridsdale has it all in hand. I bet they'll have goldfish in the boardroom by this time next year.

Barnsley were just as bad against Sheffield Wednesday as they were against us, but Sheffield Wednesday were better than we'd been, took their chances and won the game easily. Almost 8,000 were there from Sheffield to see their side move up to ninth, which is an incredible climb given that they were bottom in October.

Quite what the Barnsley side have seen in these last two performances I don't know, but it has been enough for them to give the manager's job to Simon Davey on a permanent basis.

Norwich are another side who would be right down there but for the goalscoring form of Robert Earnshaw. They don't seem to pick up too many points when the Welsh international doesn't get the goals but they did this weekend with Dion Dublin scoring the only goal of the game against QPR.

That leaves Coventry and Southend and not for the first time Freddy Eastwood's loss of form saw him out of the side for the bottom club, having to settle for a place on the bench. Struggling they are, but this was their third successive away draw against a Coventry side who appear to be going nowhere. Mark Gower got the equaliser for Southend after Elliott Ward had given the home side the lead.

The big New Year's Day game is at Deepdale where second take on third. I wonder if little Billy will get any stick from the clap stick carrying home fans. Happy New Year.

The Weekend Results

Friday 29th December

Birmingham 2 Luton 2

.

Saturday 30th December

Barnsley 0 Sheffield Wed 3

Norwich 1 QPR 0

Cardiff 0 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 2 Leicester 0

Colchester 2 Wolves 1

Stoke 3 Leeds 1

Coventry 1 Southend 1

RK Sunderland 0 Preston 1

Derby 1 Plymouth 0

West Brom 2 Ipswich 0

Hull 2 Burnley 0

.

The Weekend Stats

Biggest win

Sheffield Wed 3-0 v Barnsley (away)

Total goals scored

25

Player scoring most goals

no player scored more than one goal

Highest Attendance

30,460 - RK Sunderland v Preston

Lowest Attendance

5,893 - Colchester v Wolves

Total Yellow Cards

33

Total Red Cards

0

Most cards in a game

Hull v Burnley (6Y)

The leading scorers (league only)

16

Robert Earnshaw (Norwich)

15

Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)

13

Jamie Cureton (Colchester)
Chris Iwelumo (Colchester)
Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham)

12

Michael Chopra (Cardiff)
Diomansy Kamara (West Brom)
Rowan Vine (Luton)

10

Andy Gray (Burnley)
Alan Lee (Ipswich)

8

Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham)
Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed)
Steve Howard (Derby)
David Nugent (Preston)
Kevin Phillips (West Brom)

7

Freddy Eastwood (Southend)
Barry Hayles (Plymouth)
Iain Hume (Leicester)
Kenwyne Jones (Southampton)
Marcus Tudgay (Sheffield Wed)

Hat Tricks (league only)

26th Aug

3 - Jamie Cureton - COLCHESTER v Derby

12th Sep

3 - Gifton Noel-Williams - BURNLEY v Barnsley

14th Oct

3 - Kevin Phillips - Ipswich v WEST BROM

29th Oct

3 - Alan Lee - IPSWICH v Luton

28th Nov

4 - Chris Iwelumo - COLCHESTER v Hull

9th Dec

3 - Gary McSheffrey - BIRMINGHAM v Preston

Disciplinary Record (all games)

Club

Y

R

Club

Y

R

Barnsley

36

4

Luton

32

3

Birmingham

53

4

Norwich

46

3

Burnley

45

6

Plymouth

48

1

Cardiff

39

5

Preston

42

3

Colchester

26

1

QPR

48

0

Coventry

46

1

Sheffield Wed

48

4

Crystal Palace

35

0

Southampton

34

1

Derby

54

2

Southend

40

3

Hull

50

3

Stoke

43

2

Ipswich

70

3

RK Sunderland

37

3

Leeds

58

3

West Brom

66

3

Leicester

49

3

Wolves

38

2

This Week's Fixtures

Monday 1st January

Burnley v Stoke

Plymouth v Southampton

Crystal Palace v Norwich

Preston v Derby

Ipswich v Birmingham

QPR v Colchester

Leeds v Coventry

Sheffield Wed v Hull

Leicester v RK Sunderland

Southend v West Brom

Luton v Cardiff

Wolves v Barnsley