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In the Championship – Tighter at the top
It wasn't to be though as two late goals from the home side meant the Welsh side's lead at the top of the league was cut to one point. It looked as though Cardiff had at least earned themselves a point with a goal from Michael Chopra, he's played for Newcastle you know, midway through the second half but went down after what manager Dave Jones described as poor defending in the last few minutes.
And he wasn't wrong, firstly Darren Purse let them in for goal number two and that was followed up with Stephen McPhail getting sent off for a professional foul with Colchester scoring from the penalty.
That result means one of three clubs could lead the way on Saturday night. It could still be Cardiff but if we were to beat them it could be us but that would be dependent on Preston who travel to bottom club Southend.
Preston got their usual lift up in their home game against Luton, visiting goalkeeper Marlon Beresford was sent off. He's making a habit of this, the same happened last season and Luton got hammered. Winning his appeal afterwards was little consolation.
It was 0-0 this time when he brought down Dave Nugent, they went on to lose 3-0 and Luton, like last year, have submitted an appeal against the red card from referee Colin Webster who sent off Andy Gray earlier in the season. I suspect Luton and Beresford will lose this one just as they lost the game.
Beresford wasn't the only ex-Claret in the news this weekend either, with Robbie Blake and Richard Chaplow both scoring for their respective clubs. Blake helped turn things the way of Leeds just before half time at Barnsley. A goal down, Shaun Derry, a player who very much fits the obnoxious Wise's bill for a nasty team, equalised for a Blake corner and within a minute Blake scored a good goal to take them in at half time level.
Apparently they reverted to type in the second half, they were crap, and two good finishes from Michael McIndoe and Brian Howard saw the points won by the home side and keep Leeds next to bottom in the league.
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It was a bit of a surprise to even see him playing, it was only his second start in the league all season, but his goal put West Brom in front at Derby. That was the score at half time and Derby manager Billy Davies was instructed to stay away from the touchline in the second half after suffering dizzy spells during the first forty-five minutes. I always thought the chances of dizzy spells increased the higher you got, very baffling then in Davies' case.
He missed yet another Derby comeback, and not for the first time Giles Barnes was on the scoresheet. He's scored point winning games in all three games in the last week, all after Derby had been behind with less than twenty minutes to go.
Crystal Palace slipped to twentieth place in the Championship after another defeat, this time at Loftus Road against QPR, going down 4-2 after twice leading and taking a 2-1 lead into the half time interval.
The Legend says he can't believe that his side are so low in the league table, but he does think it is maybe because of the high quality of clubs in the Championship. Perhaps someone should point out it is because they don't have enough points to be any higher. He wasn't happy again with the latest performance, and no surprise given the way they defended. I wonder how much longer before the fake tanned chairman says enough is enough.
The Legend says he can't believe that his side are so low in the league table, but he does think it is maybe because of the high quality of clubs in the Championship. Perhaps someone should point out it is because they don't have enough points to be any higher. He wasn't happy again with the latest performance, and no surprise given the way they defended. I wonder how much longer before the fake tanned chairman says enough is enough.
The result saw even QPR go above them, there has been a big turn round there since the appointment of John Gregory with just two defeats from eight games, and once again the star was Jimmy Smith, who is on loan from Chelsea.
Right down at the bottom are Southend and I'm still wondering how they managed to keep a clean sheet at Burnley. In their last nine games they gave conceded three goals seven times, two goals once, and held us to a 0-0 draw.
They made things easy for Wolves at Molineux with goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan, who had such a good game at Burnley, gifting the home side with their first goal, one of two scored by Leon Clarke.
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Birmingham have worked out how to win football matches, put the manager under real pressure and then sit back and watch. Steve Bruce looked almost certain to be picking his P45 up recently after a home defeat against Norwich. Since then they have won five successive games, four of them in the league, and have climbed from ninth to fourth in the league, just a point behind the Clarets.
The latest win at Plymouth was the home side's first defeat at Home Park since August and the result saw them drop out of the play off positions. The goal was a first for Birmingham from Tunisian World Cup defender Radhi Jaidi who was signed from Bolton in the summer.
Norwich got back to winning ways at home with a narrow 1-0 victory over RK Sunderland but it was a fortunate win with the Wearsiders desperately unlucky not to be awarded a late penalty by Premiership referee Mike Riley.
Robert Earnshaw got the goal, and then spent the next five minutes on his tedious goal celebration routine, one day he'll just get himself an injury doing that.
Robert Earnshaw got the goal, and then spent the next five minutes on his tedious goal celebration routine, one day he'll just get himself an injury doing that.
Sheffield Wednesday won again, two Marcus Tudgay goals were enough to beat Leicester 2-1 at Hillsborough and give caretaker boss Sean McAuley his third win in an unbeaten run of four games in charge.
That's the end though for McAuley, former Claret and manager of Scunthorpe Brian Laws has moved into the hot seat. Laws has been in charge of Scunthorpe for about ten years in two spells after leaving Grimsby rather hurriedly following an incident with chicken sandwhiches.
He's taken his assistant Russ Wilcox with him after guiding Scunthorpe to third place in League One, a start to the season which included a recent 4-0 win at leaders Forest in front of the television cameras. Chairman Dave Allen was impressed with Laws mainly because he'd played for Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.
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What a pity that other clubs don't have the facility for increasing prices for away fans when Stoke visit, because letting their fans taste the nasty medicine is the one sure way of them putting their own club under some sort of pressure for this appalling action.
A Coventry win would have been just what they deserved but the Sky Blues weren't interested in that and came to defend. They held out for an hour, mainly because of Stoke's inability to finish, the devout diver Ricardo Fuller in particular.
When they did finally get the breakthrough, it was a stunner, from defender Andy Griffin who hit a tremendous shot from some thirty yards out. Three minutes later and the home side were down to ten men. We know what the devout diver is capable of and a raised arm was enough to see referee Carl Boyeson's red card come out.
You won the game Stoke, but you did football no favours at all last night with your charging of the Coventry fans.
We've no midweek games this week, but a full fixture list as shown below.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 4th November | |
Barnsley 3 Leeds 2 | Preston 3 Luton 0 |
Burnley 1 Ipswich 0 | QPR 4 Crystal Palace 2 |
Colchester 3 Cardiff 1 | Sheffield Wed 2 Leicester 1 |
Derby 2 West Brom 1 | Southampton 0 Hull 0 |
Norwich 1 RK Sunderland 0 | Wolves 3 Southend 1 |
Plymouth 0 Birmingham 1 | . |
Monday 6th November | |
Stoke 1 Coventry 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Preston 3-0 v Luton (home) |
Total goals scored | 32 |
Player scoring most goals | Leon Clarke (Wolves) |
Highest Attendance | 25,342 - Derby v West Brom |
Lowest Attendance | 5,393 - Colchester v Cardiff |
Total Yellow Cards | 41 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Burnley v Ipswich (5Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
11 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) |
10 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) |
9 | Andy Gray (Burnley) |
8 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) Alan Lee (Ipswich) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) Rowan Vine (Luton) |
6 | Freddy Eastwood (Southend) Iain Hume (Leicester) Jon Parkin (Hull) |
5 | Patrick Agyemang (Preston) Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham) Dexter Blackstock (QPR) Leon Clarke (Wolves) Carlos Edwards (Luton) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) David Healy (Leeds) Brian Howard (Barnsley) Steve Howard (Luton) Arturo Lupoli (Derby) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) Mark Richards (Barnsley) Martin Rowlands (QPR) Marcus Tudgay (Derby) Simon Whaley (Preston) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
26th Aug | Jamie Cureton - COLCHESTER v Derby |
12th Sep | Gifton Noel-Williams - BURNLEY v Barnsley |
14th Oct | Kevin Phillips - Ipswich v WEST BROM |
29th Oct | Alan Lee - IPSWICH v Luton |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 25 | 3 | Luton | 17 | 3 |
| Birmingham | 31 | 4 | Norwich | 28 | 3 |
| Burnley | 21 | 5 | Plymouth | 28 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 24 | 4 | Preston | 28 | 2 |
| Colchester | 19 | 0 | QPR | 33 | 0 |
| Coventry | 30 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 25 | 2 |
| Crystal Palace | 21 | 0 | Southampton | 27 | 0 |
| Derby | 37 | 2 | Southend | 25 | 0 |
| Hull | 35 | 2 | Stoke | 28 | 2 |
| Ipswich | 52 | 2 | RK Sunderland | 28 | 3 |
| Leeds | 40 | 1 | West Brom | 42 | 2 |
| Leicester | 31 | 2 | Wolves | 24 | 2 |
This Week's Fixtures | |
Saturday 11th November | |
Birmingham v Barnsley | Leeds v Colchester |
Cardiff v Burnley | Leicester v Plymouth |
Coventry v Derby | Luton v QPR |
Crystal Palace v Stoke | Southend v Preston |
Hull v Wolves | Sunderland v Southampton |
Ipswich v Sheffield Wed | West Brom v Norwich |