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In the Championship – Sunderland edging closer
Television had laughed at the fact that more away fans were expected than home fans and if that was the case the bigger support were celebrating after just three minutes when Marcus Stewart gave Sunderland the lead.
Wigan whinged that the ball had gone out of play but replays showed it hadn’t, that was when Jewell decided it might be offside but it wasn’t that either. That was enough and even the less than gracious Jewell admitted that the better side won.
It leaves Wigan chasing Ipswich or having to make do with the play offs after suffering their fifth home defeat of the season and the Tractor Boys went three points clear of them in an amazing game that saw relegation confirmed for bottom club Rotherham.
Darren Bent hit two as the Tractor Boys went 4-1 up on the hour but they were pegged back to 4-3 as Rotherham came storming back. They couldn’t quite get the equaliser and that confirmed their four year stay in this league was over.
It also signalled the end for manager Alan Knill who had taken over the reigns from Ronnie Moore earlier in the year. He’s stepped into the assistant’s role with Mick Harford arriving yesterday in a two year deal.
It’s becoming a battle as to who will go down with them but Forest are doing their best to be included and turned in a dreadful performance at Coventry last night when they were beaten 2-0 with a Gary McSheffrey penalty and a solo goal from Dele Adebola. I know that’s somewhat difficult to take in so I’ll repeat it – a solo goal from Dele Adebola.
Gary Megson was not happy and was concerned that 4,000 Forest fans had gone missing, he certainly said something about them being lost. He apologised to them and said, “Not only did we lose the game, lost two goals and not scored one, we lost the supporters. Four thousand people came here to see us and by the end they were being ironic and sarcastic and you can’t blame them.” One woman wearing red just stood there laughing – oh, no sorry, that’s Stoke.
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Gillingham manager Stan Ternent had been blowing kisses at the Preston fans last weekend and he saw his side sneak above Brighton with another away draw at QPR. The Gills led through a first half goal from Michael Flynn but QPR leading scorer Paul Furlong.
Gillingham are back home this weekend apparently and I’m told their manager is rather looking forward to it. I might just call in and take a look at what is going on.
Then it is Watford and they fell to another defeat at Plymouth where they probably tried to stop the home side by blocking throw ins. I just suspect the Watford board might have made a terrible mistake appointing Boothroyd and could yet be the one that slips below the line come early May.
Cardiff, like Coventry were winners with a 3-1 win at Stoke and I bet Tony Pulis is regretting his play off charge comments recently. Since then they have picked up one point from four games and had no answer to Cardiff for whom Cameron Jerome scored twice. Needless to say Peter Thorne found the net against his old club, ending the scoring from the penalty spot.
That leaves Crewe. It is quite often said that one side will storm up the table and one will drop like a stone. Well seven points from the last fifteen games looks to be dropping like one big stone to me.
It’s no Carnival de Paris for Dario G right now and no matter what he does he cannot find a win, their last came on New Year’s Day. It was no surprise though given that the opposition was Derby. They lost away from home for the first time since November at Ipswich on Saturday, they were hardly going to do it again.
And they didn’t with Grzegorz Rasiak scoring sixteen minutes into the game and Tommy Smith adding a second sixteen minutes from the end. Crewe’s David Vaughan scored a stoppage time consolation goal.
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Reading beat Millwall, coming from behind to win 2-1. That means it would take something of a miracle for Wise’s lot to reach the play offs so that was good news all round.
And finally to Leeds where poor Kevin Blackwell doesn’t seem to know what to do now the transfer deadline has passed. Neither did his players as they crashed 4-0 to Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United.
This was always going to be an interesting one to see who played up front. For the home side Ian Moore was left out after starting on Saturday, he came on during the second half for Marlon King.
For the Blades, the draw winners this time were Andy Gray, he scored twice, and Danny Webber who got the first goal. Steve Kabba came on as a substitute but David Johnson didn’t even make the bench.
That was not a problem for Johnson or for Paul Shaw or for Ashley Ward because Neil Warnock now arranges special matches for the strikers who don’t get a game. Yesterday these three played in a behind closed doors game against Doncaster and Johnson scored twice. That’s what you do when you have enough strikers to run a league, you arrange meaningless games.
And now on to weekend – when for one team at least it is a meet up with an old friend.
The Mideek Results | |
Tuesday 5th April | |
Burnley 0 West Ham 1 | Preston 3 Brighton 0 |
Crewe 1 Derby 2 | QPR 1 Gillingham 1 |
Ipswich 4 Rotherham 3 | Reading 2 Millwall 1 |
Leeds 0 Sheffield Utd 4 | Stoke 1 Cardiff 3 |
Leicester 1 Wolves 1 | Wigan 0 Sunderland 1 |
Plymouth 1 Watford 0 | . |
Wednesday 6th April | |
Coventry 2 Nott'm Forest 0 | . |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Sheffield Utd 4-0 v Leeds (away) |
Total goals scored | 33 |
Player scoring most goals | Darren Bent (Ipswich) |
Highest Attendance | 28,936 - Leeds v Sheffield Utd |
Lowest Attendance | 8,026 - Crewe v Derby |
Total Yellow Cards | 30 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Coventry v Nott'm Forest (5Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
23 | Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
19 | Darren Bent (Ipswich) Jason Roberts (Wigan) Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) |
18 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) - now with Norwich Paul Furlong (QPR) |
17 | Dave Kitson (Reading) Kenny Miller (Wolves) |
16 | Shefki Kuqi (Ipswich) |
15 | Richard Cresswell (Preston) Grzegorz Rasiak (Derby) Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) |
14 | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
13 | Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) Marlon Harewood (West Ham) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) - 12 for Watford |
12 | David Healy (Leeds) - 5 for Preston Heidar Helguson (Watford) Lee McCulloch (Wigan) Gifton Noel-Williams (Stoke) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
11 | Tommy Miller (Ipswich) Peter Thorne (Cardiff) |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Saturday 9th April | |
Brighton v Leicester | Rotherham v Preston |
Cardiff v Wigan | Sheffield Utd v QPR |
Derby v Stoke | Sunderland v Reading |
Gillingham v Burnley | Watford v Leeds |
Millwall v Crewe | West Ham v Coventry |
Nott'm Forest v Plymouth | . |
Sunday 10th April | |
Wolves v Ipswich | . |