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In the Championship – Three join Clarets at the top
Palace are the leaders, for what it is worth, but they were somewhat fortunate to win their second game against Southend at Selhurst Park. They fell a goal behind, with Freddie Eastwood on the mark again for the Shrimpers, but came back in the second half with three goals in a nine minute spell.
Luton are the only side, other than us, to have kept two clean sheets. They weren't the best defensively last season but a 2-0 home win against Leicester on the opening day was followed by a 1-0 success at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday.
The other 100% side Birmingham, just down from the Premiership, beat promoted Colchester on the opening day and last night travelled to the Stadium of Light and beat Sunderland. I suspect the Mackems won't have the sort of home form they had last season, just the one win, but it has hardly been the best of starts for new manager Niall Quinn. They are one of the promotion favourites but right now are down at the wrong end of the table without a solitary point.
Maybe the other four pointless clubs don't come as much of a surprise. I wouldn't think any of Leicester, Hull, Colchester or Ipswich would be likely promotion candidates. The latter three are all under new management, as is just about half the division, and it would be a surprise to see any of them at the top. That might surprise some with Ipswich but they have hardly strengthened their squad and didn't have the best of seasons last time around.
Just taking a look at some of the results, our local rivals in this division Preston haven't made the best of starts. They are still looking for their first goal, unless you include Sean St Ledger's entertaining own goal at Norwich, and have picked up just the one point.
Meanwhile things aren't much better for their former manager, little Billy is now at Derby and his side too have just the one point. They went down to a 2-0 defeat at Stoke on Tuesday, in a game that featured former Burnley loan player Luke Chadwick. He'd fallen unconscious with dehydration on Saturday but was fit enough to play although was substituted on 65 minutes.
The game of the week has been the 1-1 draw between Cardiff and West Brom at Ninian Park, a game that incredibly attracted over 20,000 spectators. But the comeback of the week was surely Barnsley's at Hull.
Jon Parkin made his league debut for Barnsley and must have been delighted to score twice in the first nine minutes for his current club Hull on Tuesday. That should have been enough to see the home side collect all three points, but Barnsley pulled one back right on half time and then went on to add two more in the second half to win the game.
Parkin became the third player to score twice in a game this season, following on from our own Steve Jones and West Brom's John Hartson on Saturday. Eastwood (Southend) has scored in both games as has Southampton's Gareth Bale who only celebrated his seventeenth birthday last month. He's rated as highly as Theo Walcott at St Mary's and is apparently as quick. He certainly takes a good free kick and both his goals have been curled in from outside the box from free kicks.
The first set of games have seen four players sent off and two of them will now miss games against Burnley. Sheffield Wednesday's Lee Bullen received his marching orders last Saturday whilst Carl Cort of Wolves was sent off by red card specialist Trevor Kettle on Tuesday, although Kettle was left with little option.
The stats for this week, and the weekend's fixtures are shown below.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 5th August | |
Barnsley 1 Cardiff 2 | Luton 2 Leicester 0 |
Birmingham 2 Colchester 1 | Plymouth 1 Wolves 1 |
Burnley 2 QPR 0 | Preston 0 Sheffield Wed 0 |
Ipswich 1 Crystal Palace 2 | Southend 1 Stoke 0 |
Leeds 1 Norwich 0 | West Brom 2 Hull 0 |
Sunday 6th August | |
Coventry 2 Sunderland 1 | Derby 2 Southampton 2 |
Tuesday 8th August | |
Cardiff 1 West Brom 1 | Norwich 2 Preston 0 |
Colchester 0 Plymouth 1 | QPR 2 Leeds 2 |
Crystal Palace 3 Southend 1 | Sheffield Wed 0 Luton 1 |
Hull 2 Barnsley 3 | Stoke 2 Derby 0 |
Leicester 0 Burnley 1 | Wolves 1 Ipswich 0 |
Wednesday 9th August | |
Southampton 2 Coventry 0 | Sunderland 0 Birmingham 1 |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Burnley 2-0 v QPR (home) |
Total goals scored | 26 |
Player scoring most goals | John Hartson (West Brom) |
Highest Attendance | 25,413 - Ipswich v Crystal Palace |
Lowest Attendance | 8,131 - Luton v Leicester |
Total Yellow Cards | 35 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most cards in a game | Plymouth v Wolves (6Y) |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Crystal Palace 3-1 v Southend (home) |
Total goals scored | 26 |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Jon Parkin (Hull) |
Highest Attendance | 26,668 - Sunderland v Birmingham |
Lowest Attendance | 4,627 - Colchester v Plymouth |
Total Yellow Cards | 37 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most cards in a game | Colchester v Plymouth (6Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
2 | Gareth Bale (Crystal Palace) Freddie Eastwood (Southend) John Hartson (West Brom) Steve Jones (Burnley) Jon Parkin (Hull) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 2 | 0 | Luton | 4 | 0 |
| Birmingham | 3 | 1 | Norwich | 1 | 0 |
| Burnley | 5 | 0 | Plymouth | 8 | 0 |
| Cardiff | 2 | 0 | Preston | 5 | 1 |
| Colchester | 2 | 0 | QPR | 1 | 0 |
| Coventry | 3 | 0 | Sheffield Wed | 1 | 1 |
| Crystal Palace | 2 | 0 | Southampton | 1 | 0 |
| Derby | 4 | 0 | Southend | 0 | 0 |
| Hull | 3 | 0 | Stoke | 2 | 0 |
| Ipswich | 5 | 0 | Sunderland | 1 | 0 |
| Leeds | 6 | 0 | West Brom | 4 | 0 |
| Leicester | 5 | 0 | Wolves | 2 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Friday 11th August | |
Wolves v Preston | . |
Saturday 12th August | |
Cardiff v Coventry | QPR v Southend |
Colchester v Barnsley | Sheffield Wed v Burnley |
Hull v Derby | Southampton v West Brom |
Leicester v Ipswich | Stoke v Birmingham |
Norwich v Luton | Sunderland v Plymouth |
Sunday 13th August | |
Crystal Palace v Leeds | . |