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In the Championship – Top three falter
With the goldfish and pot plants having arrived, the Welsh club were twice in front, dominated the game and looked set for another win when they led as they went into stoppage time. That was when Giles Barnes hit a terrific volley to earn Derby a very unlikely point.
West Brom's chances of going second disappeared just down the road in Birmingham where they fell to two Gary McSheffrey goals at St. Andrew's. The second of them came right on full time but by then the Baggies were down to ten men after Paul Robinson was shown a red card for a challenge on Birmingham captain Damian Johnson, the former Blackburn player, that fractured his jaw.
Robinson will serve a three match ban, but Birmingham boss Steve Bruce is demanding the FA take further action. “In my ten years as a manager I don't think I've ever criticised an individual from another team but it was a disgraceful challenge,” Bruce said. “I'm not going to get into a slanging match with Tony Mowbray or anyone else, but I'm entitled to my opinion.”
Mowbray is adamant there was no malice, but my sympathies here are with Bruce and Birmingham, the look on Robinson's face after the collision was proof enough that he meant it. It really was a shocking challenge by the West Brom left back.
It was a first defeat for new Albion boss Mowbray and the same happened to Peter Grant, the new Norwich manager, when they took something of a hammering at Stoke. There was a sending off in this game too, Norwich's loan goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown getting his marching orders for bringing down Luke Chadwick.
By then Stoke were already two up, and including the resulting penalty they added three more. The decision, under new FIFA directives was an incorrect one by referee Paul Robinson, surely you would expect the referee to know about these directives. Hopefully he will have that sorted out by the time he gets to Turf Moor this Saturday.
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Stoke weren't the only side to win 5-0, Ipswich beat Luton by the same scoreline yesterday, and although they fully deserved that win questions have to be asked about a disallowed Luton goal with the score at 1-0. No matter which way you look at it, the assistant got it wrong when he flagged offside but the goal was ruled out and Ipswich, who to be fair had dominated, went on to win easily with former Claret Alan Lee bagging a second half hat trick.
He wasn't the only ex-Claret to find the net either, there were two more at Elland Road as Leeds got off to a winning, and presumably nasty, start under new manager Dennis Wise. The first of them was from Ian Moore, their fifteen goals per season striker, and this was his first league goal since he's scored for Burnley at Coventry. Not bad, 623 days between league goals, that makes Danny Dichio and Jon Stead look prolific.
Robbie Blake, in need of losing some weight apparently, went on as a late sub and scored with a superb free kick from outside the box. “I like him,” said Wise, determined to get him fitter and playing regularly.
The home fans are getting restless at Selhurst Park, almost enough to fade Simon Jordan's sun tan. It has a lot to do with four defeats from their last five home games, results that have seen them drop to seventeenth in the table.
The Legend, who after the draw with the Clarets said his side had made a sensible start to the season, whatever that is supposed to mean, is now far from happy with his players. “We're not making excuses, we're not good enough at the moment,” were his words this time.
Action has been taken by Palace, they have today parted company with Director of Football Bob Dowie, brother of former manager Iain. Apparently their confidence is low and according to the Legend at times of low confidence you want to score a goal and not concede one. I', amazed as to what you might want to do when you are confident.
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Adams has hit out at those fans and said he'll walk away from Coventry if they do it again. Now surely that has played right into their hands, all they need to do now is keep it up and they get their wish with Adams gone. He was nearly on his way last month, but the board prevented him from talking to West Brom, but don't expect Adams to be at the Ricoh for much longer.
RK Sunderland managed a last ditch win at bottom of the table Hull, the goal coming from Ross Wallace in stoppage time. Off came the shirt, off he went to celebrate with the RK Sunderland fans and having already been booked, out came the red card from our old friend Richard Beeby.
Beeby really had no option, but then you can watch other games with similar incidents and the referees take no action. It is about time they did one thing or another.
George Burley returned to Colchester where his management career started over twelve years ago, but there was to be no success for his Southampton side as they went down by two goals to nil. The home side were in front very early in the game through Kevin McLeod with Jamie Cureton adding a very well deserved last minute second. The result has taken Colchester above Southampton and into the top ten, not bad for a side that lost its first four games of the season.
Leon Clarke scored twice for Wolves in their home game at Molineux but it wasn't enough to beat Sheffield Wednesday. Between Clarke's two goals, Wednesday scored twice themselves and that's four points in two games since the sacking of Paul Sturrock.
There are suggestions that there might be a new manager in place by the end of the week. Chairman Dave Allen said he wanted a manager who would play attacking football with two wingers and then promptly interviewed Gary Megson. Former Claret and Scunthorpe boss Brian Laws has also been interviewed for the job, chicken has already been taken off the menu just in case.
That leaves us with QPR v Leicester and a point each from a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road. Leicester took an early lead, Patrick Kisnorbo scoring, but Gareth McAuley was sent off for handling on the line and that led to QPR's equaliser, Martin Rowlands converting from the spot. News from Leicester right now is suggesting that former Portsmouth Chairman Milan Mandaric could be set to take over with a £25 million bid for the club.
It's Champions League week so that means fixtures in our league having to compete with the television coverage of all the big games including Barcelona v Chelsea. The midweek, and weekend fixtures are all shown below.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 27th October | |
Burnley 3 Preston 2 | . |
Saturday 28th October | |
Barnsley 0 Coventry 1 | Hull 0 RK Sunderland 1 |
Birmingham 2 West Brom 0 | Leeds 2 Southend 0 |
Cardiff 2 Derby 2 | QPR 1 Leicester 1 |
Colchester 2 Southampton 0 | Stoke 5 Norwich 0 |
Crystal Palace 0 Plymouth 1 | Wolves 2 Sheffield Wed 2 |
Sunday 29th October | |
Ipswich 5 Luton 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Ipswich 5-0 v Luton (home) |
Total goals scored | 34 |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Alan Lee (Ipswich) |
Highest Attendance | 25,512 - Hull v RK Sunderland |
Lowest Attendance | 5,893 - Colchester v Southampton |
Total Yellow Cards | 29 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Hull v RK Sunderland (6Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
9 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) |
8 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) Alan Lee (Ipswich) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) Rowan Vine (Luton) |
7 | Andy Gray (Burnley) |
6 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) |
5 | Dexter Blackstock (QPR)) Freddy Eastwood (Southend) Carlos Edwards (Luton) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) Steve Howard (Luton) Iain Hume (Leicester) Arturo Lupoli (Derby) Jon Parkin (Hull) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) Mark Richards (Barnsley) Martin Rowlands (QPR) Simon Whaley (Preston) |
4 | Patrick Agyemang (Preston) Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham) Jay Bothroyd (Wolves) Chris Brunt (Sheffield Wed) DJ Campbell (Birmingham) Paul Hayes (Barnsley) David Healy (Leeds) Brian Howard (Barnsley) Iain Hume (Leicester) Chris Iwelumo (Colchester) Stern John (Coventry) Gifton Noel-Williams (Burnley) Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham) - 1 with Coventry Riccardo Scimeca (Cardiff) |
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 | 21 | 3 | Luton | 16 | 2 |
| Birmingham | 25 | 4 | Norwich | 26 | 3 |
| Burnley | 17 | 3 | Plymouth | 26 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 20 | 3 | Preston | 28 | 2 |
| Colchester | 17 | 0 | QPR | 29 | 0 |
| Coventry | 23 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 23 | 2 |
| Crystal Palace | 17 | 0 | Southampton | 26 | 0 |
| Derby | 34 | 2 | Southend | 22 | 0 |
| Hull | 33 | 1 | Stoke | 26 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 43 | 1 | RK Sunderland | 26 | 3 |
| Leeds | 35 | 1 | West Brom | 40 | 2 |
| Leicester | 25 | 2 | Wolves | 22 | 2 |
This Weekend Fixtures | |
Tuesday 31st October | |
Coventry v Birmingham | Preston v Leeds |
Leicester v Stoke | Sheffield Wed v Crystal Palace |
Luton v Burnley | Southend v Hull |
Norwich v Colchester | RK Sunderland v Cardiff |
Plymouth v Ipswich | West Brom v QPR |
Wednesday 1st November | |
Derby v Barnsley | Southampton v Wolves |
Saturday 4th November | |
Barnsley v Leeds | Preston v Luton |
Burnley v Ipswich | QPR v Crystal Palace |
Colchester v Cardiff | Sheffield Wed v Leicester |
Derby v West Brom | Southampton v Hull |
Norwich v RK Sunderland | Wolves v Southend |
Plymouth v Birmingham | . |
Monday 6th November | |
Stoke v Coventry | . |