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In the Championship – Top two march on
Last Updated : 25-Oct-2004 by
By that time it was all over and the goals are starting to come from other sources. Jason Roberts didn’t score (he missed the penalty) and Nathan Ellington only got one of them.
Reading are hot on their heels and it was a case of anything you can do we can do better. They also scored four but didn’t concede as Dario G’s Crewe were given a hammering.
Glen Little was in the Reading side but was substituted, he hasn’t played a full ninety minutes since the opening day of the season.
Ipswich are third but dropped two points at Watford after leading 2-0. There wasn’t a goal in the first half but Ian Westlake and Darren Bent looked to have secured a win for the Tractor Boys.
However, Heidar Helguson and Hameur Bouazza pulled it back. It’s not on is it? We are all supposed to play against Ipswich the way Long Ball Joe tells us to. Surely he hadn’t scripted this comeback. I suppose LBJ could call it football.
West Ham moved up to fourth, beating Gillingham 3-1 at the Boleyn Ground with all the goals coming in the first half. That’s one point from nine games for the Gills who remain next to bottom in the league although there is little likelihood of them dropping any more places just now.
West Ham moved up to fourth, beating Gillingham 3-1 at the Boleyn Ground with all the goals coming in the first half. That’s one point from nine games for the Gills who remain next to bottom in the league although there is little likelihood of them dropping any more places just now.
The bottom spot has been Rotherham’s since the last Saturday in August and they are still without a win. They found a new way of avoiding defeat over the weekend, they didn’t play. They are in action tonight against Sunderland at Millmoor.
Forest are back in the bottom three after going down to a 3-2 defeat at Deepdale that could and should have been a much heavier defeat after a short but dramatic appearance from former Claret Gareth Taylor.
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Taylor will now serve a four match suspension that will see him next available for Forest when they visit the Turf next month.
Incredibly that signalled a fightback by Forest who scored twice in two minutes through Marlon King but were still beaten 3-2.
Cardiff were the only side in the bottom six to pick up a point. It was beginning to look like a south coast derby at Millwall with Portsmouth’s Gary O’Neil giving Cardiff the lead before half time and Southampton’s Jo Tessem equalising for Millwall just after the break.
Former Claret Alan Lee restored Cardiff’s lead with a goal that owed as much to bad refereeing as anything else before Neil Harris completing the scoring and in doing so became the joint leading scorer of all time for Millwall alongside Teddy Sheringham.
Remember Northampton referee Richard Beeby making a complete mess of the Gillingham game on the Turf with eight yellow cards and a red for Micah Hyde? Well, he was at it again at Brighton as the home side beat Leeds 1-0 with a Clarke Carlisle own goal.
Carlisle didn’t see out the ninety minutes and neither did Matthew Kilgallon as Beeby took his red card count to six in his last eight games.
Carlisle didn’t see out the ninety minutes and neither did Matthew Kilgallon as Beeby took his red card count to six in his last eight games.
Dave Bassett and Howard Wilkinson haven’t bothered winning or losing yet and picked up their third successive draw at home to Stoke. In the previous two games they have conceded own goals but this time it was the other way round with Stoke’s John Halls scoring for Leicester before Carl Asaba, with his first league goal of the season, equalised for the visitors.
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Just a couple of transfers to add: Sheffield United have paid Stockport £25,000 for former Sheffield Wednesday defender Derek Geary. It looks as though Warnock is looking to merger the clubs having already signed Alan Quinn and Leigh Bromby (who scored in the win against Plymouth).
Chelsea midfielder Alexis Nicolas has been on loan at Brighton but the deal has now been made permanent. He’s been a regular in the side this season at the Withdean but did not feature against Leeds.
And what about Brett Ormerod who played in the Brighton v Leeds game. He played the full ninety minutes in what was the last game of his loan spell before returning to Southampton. His return was immediate and within 24 hours he was in Premiership action coming on for Mikael Nilsson in their home draw with Birmingham.
This week we have included the average attendances across the division for league games this season. It shows Burnley in seventeenth place with an average of 12,809.
The weekend results | |
Friday 22nd October | |
Burnley 0 Derby 2 | . |
Saturday 23rd October | |
Brighton 1 Leeds 0 | Sheffield United 2 Plymouth 1 |
Leicester 1 Stoke 1 | Watford 2 Ipswich 2 |
Millwall 2 Cardiff 2 | West Ham 3 Gillingham 1 |
Preston 3 Nottm Forest 2 | Wigan 4 Coventry 1 |
Reading 4 Crewe 0 | Wolves 2 QPR 1 |
The weekend stats | |
Biggest win | Reading 4-0 v Crewe (home) |
Total goals scored | 37 |
Player scoring most goals | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
Highest Attendance | 27,070 - Wolves v QPR |
Lowest Attendance | 6,716 - Brighton v Leeds |
Total Yellow Cards | 31 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | 8 - Brighton v Leeds (6Y 2R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
11 | Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
10 | Jason Roberts (Wigan) |
9 | Danny Webber (Watford) |
8 | Paul Furlong (QPR) Dave Kitson (Reading) |
7 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) |
6 | Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) Kenny Miller (Wolves) Paul Shaw (Sheff Utd) - 2 with Rotherham Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) |
5 | Ade Akinbiyi (Stoke) Darren Bent (Ipswich) Robbie Blake (Burnley) Darren Byfield (Gillingham) Richard Cresswell (Preston) David Friio (Plymouth) David Healy (Preston) Andy Morrell (Coventry) Danny Pugh (Leeds) Marco Reich (Derby) Marcus Tudgay (Derby) |
Average Attendances (league only) | |||
Avge | Club | High | Low |
29,022 | Leeds | 31,808 | 25,759 |
27,183 | Wolves | 28,397 | 26,115 |
26,414 | West Ham | 29,808 | 22,119 |
25,179 | Sunderland | 29,881 | 22,341 |
23,984 | Derby | 26,650 | 22,096 |
23,439 | Leicester | 30,231 | 21,249 |
22,916 | Ipswich | 24,590 | 21,246 |
22,509 | Nottingham Forest | 25,615 | 20,109 |
19,844 | Sheffield United | 22,959 | 16,337 |
17,938 | Stoke | 23,029 | 13,234 |
16,824 | Plymouth | 20,555 | 13,665 |
15,378 | QPR | 18,363 | 13,804 |
14,977 | Reading | 22,230 | 11,404 |
14,890 | Coventry | 18,054 | 11,966 |
13,459 | Watford | 15,894 | 11,161 |
12,897 | Cardiff | 17,006 | 10,606 |
12,809 | Burnley | 16,956 | 10,919 |
11,843 | Preston | 12,759 | 10,548 |
10,867 | Millwall | 12,098 | 9,132 |
9,408 | Wigan | 12,035 | 7,547 |
7,913 | Gillingham | 10,739 | 6,089 |
7,194 | Crewe | 9,095 | 5,682 |
6,426 | Brighton | 6,804 | 5,996 |
5,513 | Rotherham | 6,272 | 4,498 |
This week's fixtures | |
Monday 25th October | |
Rotherham v Sunderland | . |
Friday 29th October | |
Crewe v Sheff Utd | . |
Saturday 30th October | |
Cardiff v Leicester | Nottm Forest v Watford |
Coventry v Reading | Plymouth v West Ham |
Derby v Rotherham | QPR v Burnley |
Gilingham v Wolves | Stoke v Millwall |
Ipswich v Preston | Sunderland v Brighton |
Sunday 31st October | |
Leeds v Wigan | . |
