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In the Championship – they all want to go down
Former Burnley loan player Jay McEveley has joined Stan Ternent again but there’s no sitting on the bench this time and he gave them the lead with a free kick in the opening two minutes but it was long serving Paul Smith who scored the winner after another loan player, Kenwyne Jones had brought the Potters level.
It looked set to drop Coventry into the bottom three until Clause Jorgensen equalised for them at Millwall two minutes from the end. They are packing them in at the Den these days and a crowd of almost 9,000 had seen a Jody Morris penalty give the home side the lead with just over twenty minutes to go.
That Jorgensen goal was enough to keep Coventry above the Gills on goal difference and the same applies to Cardiff who went down 1-0 at home to promotion chasing Ipswich. Again it was a penalty, with Tommy Miller converting for the only goal of the game just past the hour.
Cardiff’s hopes could well be determined over the next week or so. With finances not just as they should be they could be set to sell more players before the transfer deadline next week. Graham Kavanagh went a couple of weeks ago and any further cutting of the squad could ultimately send them back into League One after just two years.
It’s not bad for the Premiership targeting Bluebirds who apparently were going to take this league by storm when they came up last season. At least Hammam hasn’t bought the ground this time and shipped them off to play their home matches at Vetch Field.
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It took the Mackems half an hour to break Plymouth down and get in front but once they did it was easy for them with Plymouth putting up little resistance. They always say you need goals from all areas of the pitch so Mick McCarthy must have been delighted that the goals came from five different players.
It was Dean Whitehead who gave them the lead and that was followed by goals from Julio Arca, Marcus Stewart, Stephen Caldwell and Sean Thornton.
But what about Crewe – they won at Leeds on New Year’s Day and went eighth in the table. Dario G was getting all excited and was talking about the play offs and a potential place in the Premiership for next season.
Poor Dario spoke too soon and his side haven’t won since and have picked up just five more points from twelve games and are shipping goals at more than two per game. On that first day of the year they stood fourteen points clear of the bottom three, that has now been reduced to just three.
It could have been worse too, their latest point came from a late equaliser at West Ham this week. They fell behind to a Teddy Sheringham goal fourteen minutes from the end but Steve Jones grabbed a point for them with only his second goal since November (the other was against the Clarets).
The home fans again turned on Alan Pardew, he’s working wonders to keep that West Ham squad out of the top six.
Back to the bottom though and well done to Rotherham who won their fourth game of the season and only the second at Millmoor. The Millers are yet to win a game on a Saturday this season but even though this was Tuesday they were hardly expected to beat that fantastic Reading side who have powered their way into play off contention.
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You wonder just what sort of future Rotherham have, run by the fans now they are struggling to get people in and Tuesday’s 3,804 was the lowest attendance in the league all season.
They were top when we went there earlier in the season but manager Steve Coppell’s decision to strengthen his squad with experience has not worked. He signed Les Ferdinand and Martin Keown from Bolton and Leicester respectively but has admitted that they were mistakes.
Much of the excuses coming out of Madejski FC has centred around the injury to Dave Kitson, the striker who dives and scores goals with his hands. He’s back now and did score all three when they got their first win for ages on Saturday.
Forest needed a win last night to close that gap behind Gillingham, Coventry and Cardiff but had to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw but manager Gary Megson was thrilled to bits with it all.
Illness has swept through the City Ground and he was left with having to make six changes from the side that were beaten 6-0 at Ipswich. He even brought in Matthieu Louis-Jean who hasn’t even started training after a hamstring injury.
Things aren’t looking good for Forest who have only ever spent two years outside the top two divisions, and that was over fifty years ago.
We’ve mentioned the wins for Ipswich and Sunderland but they weren’t able to take top spot off Wigan who won 4-2 at Brighton. It’s not the easiest place to go and play football but Wigan got off to the best start with two goals in the first four minutes through Jimmy Bullard and Lee McCulloch.
It was four after just over half an hour with further goals from Gary Teale and Jason Roberts but just as a cricket score looked on the cards Adam Virgo pulled one back for the home side.
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Two of that top three will win promotion, the other will have to go into the play offs and two of the other clubs in there picked up points.
Preston were battered at Sheffield United in the first half and were fortunate to go in at half time only 1-0 behind after Leigh Bromby had scored for the home side. North End got an early equaliser in the second half from Richard Cresswell.
Poor Derby, they just don’t seem to have the knack of winning at home as they do away from home, the latest home fixture bringing a 0-0 draw against QPR. They sit fourth in the table but seven home wins is considerably less that that achieved by the sides around them in the table.
They’ll be happy to get back on the road and no side has won more than Derby away from home, only Wigan have more away points.
In the final match Leicester came from two behind to earn a point in a 2-2 draw at Watford where former Rangers midfielder scored his first goal from the Foxes to complete the scoring.
Rohan Ricketts came on as a late sub for Wolves against us on Tuesday and he is one of two players to have joined Championship clubs on loan this week. The other is Southampton’s 19 year-old French midfielder Yoann Folly who has joined Preston.
He too was named on the bench on Tuesday but unlike Ricketts he didn’t get on and is still awaiting his debut.
Below are the fixtures for weekend, the last set of fixtures for two weeks following the crazy decision to play internationals at Easter weekend thus depriving the clubs of their holiday fixtures.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 15th March | |
Brighton 2 Wigan 4 | Sheffield Utd 1 Preston 1 |
Cardiff 0 Ipswich 1 | Sunderland 5 Plymouth 1 |
Gillingham 2 Stoke 1 | Watford 2 Leicester 2 |
Millwall 1 Coventry 1 | West Ham 1 Crewe 1 |
Rotherham 1 Reading 0 | Wolves 2 Burnley 0 |
Wednesday 16th March | |
Derby 0 QPR 0 | Nott'm Forest 0 Leeds 0 |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Sunderland 5-1 v Plymouth (home) |
Total goals scored | 29 |
Player scoring most goals | no player scored more than one goal |
Highest Attendance | 26,593 - West Ham v Crewe |
Lowest Attendance | 3,804 - Rotherham v Reading |
Total Yellow Cards | 37 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Watford v Leicester (6Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
23 | Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
18 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) - now with Norwich Jason Roberts (Wigan) |
17 | Paul Furlong (QPR) Kenny Miller (Wolves) |
16 | Darren Bent (Ipswich) Dave Kitson (Reading) Shefki Kuqi (Ipswich) |
15 | Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) |
14 | Richard Cresswell (Preston) Grzegorz Rasiak (Derby) Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) |
13 | Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) |
12 | Carl Cort (Wolves) Marlon Harewood (West Ham) David Healy (Leeds) - 5 with Preston Heidar Helguson (Watford) Danny Webber (Watford) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
11 | Lee McCulloch (Wigan) |
10 | Robbie Blake (Burnley) - now Birmingham Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) Tommy Miller (Ipswich) Gifton Noel-Williams (Stoke) Peter Thorne (Cardiff) |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Friday 18th March | |
West Ham v Leicester | . |
Saturday 19th March | |
Cardiff v Crewe | Sheffield Utd v Burnley |
Gillingham v Ipswich | Sunderland v Coventry |
Nott'm Forest v Wigan | Watford v Preston |
Rotherham v QPR | Wolves v Stoke |
Sunday 20th March | |
Millwall v Plymouth | . |