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In the Championship – Watford catch up
Glenn Hoddle insists they are playing well and they dominated the game at Watford on Saturday for the first hour or so but hadn’t been able to get the breakthrough. Then, goals from Jay DeMerit, Marlon King and Paul Devlin, all in the space of ten minutes, saw them facing a big defeat. They did pull one back from Seol but the defeat has seen them drop to tenth.
As for Watford they climbed a couple of places to fourth as the top teams struggled to get wins. The top two were both at home but both had to settle for a point, and in Sheffield United’s case they were fortunate to get that against in form Cardiff.
It ended goalless to bring the Blades 100% home record to an end but it could have been worse for them if referee Chris Foy hadn’t somehow missed Alan Quinn punching the ball clear from his own penalty box. The Cardiff players were incensed but it appears that none of the officials saw it, probably the only ones inside Bramall Lane, even Neil Warnock admitted to them getting away with it.
Down at Reading, they really should have taken themselves within a point of the leaders after dominating their game against Leeds. They went in front through Brynjar Gunnarsson and looked all set for another home win until Leeds replaced Robbie Blake with David Healy and nine minutes later Healy had scored a somewhat undeserved equaliser.
The slips at the top were of no help to Luton either as the 3rd place club went down to Coventry, a second successive away defeat having lost last time on the road at Crewe. As was the case with Reading they should have won after creating most of the chances but they failed to take any of them and went down to a Dele Adebola goal just after half time.
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The Stoke defender was sent off and that led to all sorts of goings on in the dug out which ended when manager Johan Boskamp was ordered to find a seat in the stand by referee Ray Olivier. There was no way back for Stoke and the Saints clinched it with a second in stoppage time.
Broomes is the fifth Stoke player to be sent off this season and it was also red card number five for Queens Park Rangers at Pride Park when Paul Furlong was sent off for the second time this season.
R’s boss Ian Holloway said the red card was justified as Furlong kicked out at Emerson Thome (Derby’s seventh loan player of the season) in retaliation to an elbow from Thome which went unpunished.
The visitors were already a goal up through Gareth Ainsworth and despite being under pressure for much of the game with ten men they doubled that lead when Kevin Gallen scored with ten minutes to go.
Derby missed a penalty and had two goals disallowed but they finally pulled one back through loan signing number eight Dexter Blackstock. There was to be no late equaliser though and they have now won just once in their last twelve games.
When Burnley travel to Bramall Lane we expect to lose, the place is our bogey ground. Most clubs have them and poor Preston were playing at their bogey ground this weekend – it is called Deepdale.
Incredibly they have still not won at home and the 0-0 draw against Leicester means six draws and two defeats in front of the fans who have now long since gone to sleep. Billy Davies thinks they are not creating enough chances but the fans now think Davies himself could be the problem and they were bombarding local radio phone ins over the weekend expressing their dissatisfaction at the current state of things and their manager. The Burnley fans were enjoying it all as they listened in, with the Preston fans fighting the Blackpool fans for air time.
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It was party time at the Withdean on Saturday and everyone arriving at the ground received a glass of champagne supplied by the chairman Dick Knight. We’ve highlighted the situation there for some time and it is fantastic news that they are finally going to have their own ground again. By the time they move in it will have been eleven years since they lost the Goldstone Ground.
The did go in front against Ipswich with a goal from Dean Hammond but Ipswich were level by half time through Sam Parkin. It stayed that way but Brighton have just won a bigger battle and were still celebrating after the game, and probably still are.
That match at Plymouth yesterday had the correct result, it had 0-0 written all over it and it was only in the last few minutes that they tried to win the game. Pulis v Lee, perhaps it was no surprise.
The result keeps Millwall on the bottom of the league with Crewe just above them after they drew 2-2 with Palace at home. It took a stoppage time goal from Michael Higdon to earn the point as Palace looked set to win it.
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That just leaves Carrow Road and the pre-season promotion favourites Norwich City. It’s not quite working out that way for Nigel Worthington and his team and despite assurances from the board that his job is safe that could well change given the pressure he is now under from the fans.
They were expecting better than this and there are now an increasing number of supporters who would like to see a change of manager. Worthington has been in charge for just one month short of five years but could he be the next manager in this division to lose his job?
This time it was strugglers Sheffield Wednesday who made the long journey to East Anglia and came back with all three points. They were under the cosh for most of the game but snatched it with a Chris Brunt goal inside the last quarter of an hour.
There have been a few emergencies this week at clubs and as we reported Phil Brown has taken loan signings seven and eight to Derby whilst of course the Clarets moved in on Thursday to sign Nathan Dyer from Southampton.
Wolves have also increased their squad with the capture of former Rangers defender Maurice Ross from Sheffield Wednesday and Tom Huddlestone from Spurs. Huddlestone moved to White Hart Lane from Derby in the summer but has failed to make the first team and will now get some more football with Wolves.
Both played in the defeat at Watford as did Blackburn’s Jemal Johnson who moved to Preston on Friday. Other loan deals have seen goalkeeper Martin Fulop sign for Coventry from Spurs and Gabriel Agbonlahor sign for Sheffield Wednesday. The young Aston Villa forward has previously been with Watford this season. Fulop and Agbonlahor also made their debuts on Saturday.
We have a full midweek fixture list again this week followed by the weekend and then it is another week off for the internationals. The fixtures are shown below the weekend stats.
The Weekend Results | |
Friday 28th October | |
Burnley 1 Hull 0 | . |
Saturday 29th October | |
Brighton 1 Ipswich 1 | Preston 0 Leicester 0 |
Coventry 1 Luton 0 | Reading 1 Leeds 1 |
Crewe 2 Crystal Palace 2 | Sheffield Utd 0 Cardiff 0 |
Derby 1 QPR 2 | Southampton 2 Stoke 0 |
Norwich 0 Sheffield Wed 1 | Watford 3 Wolves 1 |
Sunday 30th October | |
Plymouth 0 Millwall 0 | . |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Watford 3-1 v Wolves (home) |
Total goals scored | 20 |
Player scoring most goals | no player scored more than one goal |
Highest Attendance | 25,383 - Norwich v Sheffield Wed |
Lowest Attendance | 6,766 - Crewe v Crystal Palace |
Total Yellow Cards | 24 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most cards in a game | Preston v Leicester (6Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
8 | Rob Hulse (Leeds) Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Ashley Young (Watford) |
7 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Marlon King (Watford) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
6 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Dean Ashton (Norwich) Mark de Vries (Leicester) Steve Howard (Luton) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) |
5 | David Healy (Leeds) Leroy Lita (Reading) Sam Parkin (Ipswich) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 28 | 0 | Millwall | 34 | 5 |
| Burnley | 26 | 2 | Norwich | 25 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 28 | 0 | Plymouth | 29 | 0 |
| Coventry | 35 | 3 | Preston | 31 | 2 |
| Crewe | 16 | 0 | QPR | 34 | 5 |
| Crystal Palace | 33 | 0 | Reading | 20 | 0 |
| Derby | 31 | 3 | Sheffield Utd | 23 | 0 |
| Hull | 21 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 22 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 24 | 3 | Southampton | 34 | 2 |
| Leeds | 24 | 1 | Stoke | 25 | 5 |
| Leicester | 34 | 1 | Watford | 32 | 1 |
| Luton | 20 | 1 | Wolves | 18 | 1 |
The Week's Fixtures | |
Tuesday 1st November | |
Brighton v Wolves | Preston v Hull |
Burnley v Millwall | Reading v Sheffield Wed |
Crewe v Leeds | Sheffield Utd v Luton |
Norwich v Cardiff | Watford v QPR |
Plymouth v Leicester | . |
Wednesday 2nd November | |
Coventry v Stoke | Southampton v Crystal Palace |
Derby v Ipswich | . |
Saturday 5th November | |
Crystal Palace v Sheffield Utd | Millwall v Crewe |
Hull v Watford | QPR v Reading |
Ipswich v Plymouth | Sheffield Wed v Derby |
Leeds v Preston | Stoke v Brighton |
Leicester v Southampton | Wolves v Norwich |
Luton v Burnley | . |
Sunday 6th November | |
Cardiff v Coventry | . |