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In the Championship – Wolves warming up
It was Wolves biggest victory for over two and a half years and, according to boss Glenn Hoddle, their biggest win since he took over as manager in December last year.
They weren’t the only side to wrap up the points by half time – Leeds, Luton and Cardiff were all three goals up by the time the half time brew was ready, Cardiff’s the most impressive given that they, like Wolves were playing away from home at Stoke.
Stoke were favourites but their manager Johan Boskamp explained it all very well at the end of the game. “We kept getting on the wrong side of the ball,” he said. They certainly did as Cameron Jerome kept up his recent run of scoring with Darren Purse heading in a goal in between those two from a Jason Koumas cross.
Little Billy Davies must have been jumping up and down on the Kenilworth Road touchline as Preston also fell 3-0 behind against the surprise package so far Luton Town. He had gone to war with the FA earlier in the day when he was only partially successful in getting his players off suspensions but as his side fell apart it was somewhat difficult for him to blame referee Clive Penton.
Instead he described the performance from his side in the early part of the game as appalling, that was when they went 2-0 down to goals from Warren Feeney and Ahmet Brkovic in the first eleven minutes. Steve Howard made it 3-0 before half time and the apprentice Weary Whinger just went on about his side being out muscled.
Leeds were also three goals up at half time courtesy of a hat trick from Rob Hulse in twelve minutes. They were the only one of the big half time leaders to concede a second half goal and not for the first time this season the less than mobile Sean Gregan put through his own goal.
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The league is once again a Sheffield sandwich with United on top and Wednesday on the bottom and both were involved in 2-0 results. United continued their fantastic start to the season with their tenth win in eleven games by beating Plymouth 2-0 with goals from Neil Shipperley and Alan Quinn.
Wednesday though were beaten by the same scoreline at Crystal Palace where Clinton Morrison was on target for the fourth time in five games. A Glenn Whelan own goal completed the scoring at Selhurst Park.
United extended their lead at the top when Reading only picked up the one point from a 0-0 draw at St. Mary’s against Southampton. That result couldn’t have come as any surprise, it was Southampton’s sixth successive draw in the league although this was one they should have won after dominating the game. Only a brilliant late save from Marcus Hahnemann prevented the Saints from collecting their first win since August.
There was one more goalless draw, this coming at the Crisp Bowl between Leicester and Brighton. The Sussex club might not be the best side in the division but this is their fifth draw from six away games and another vital point for them.
It isn’t that long ago we were referring to Millwall as the crisis club. Well they are still in the bottom three but their 1-1 draw at home to QPR means they have now gone four games without defeat, a run that has moved them off the bottom of they league when they looked all set to find themselves adrift.
They had to come back from behind after QPR’s mountainous central defender Mark Nygaard scored with a header and they did just that through leading scorer Barry Hayles right on half time.
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But his side turned it round with what he described as their best performance since he got the job five years ago and they won it with goals from former Coventry midfielder Youssef Safri and Gary Doherty who converted a Dean Marney cross.
That leaves Coventry who have seen their crowds drop since they were allowed to use all the seats in the Ricoh Arena. Their home game against upwardly looking Watford attracted the smallest crowd yet of 16,978, but the game had just about everything.
Dele Adebola opened the scoring with a goal that most referees would have disallowed for a foul on the keeper. Willo Flood doubled that lead with a cross that went straight in before Ashley Young scored the goal of the week with a strike from outside the box.
Before Gary McSheffrey scored his first goal of the season to complete the scoring we had a good old fashioned punch up in the middle of the pitch involving most of the players. It was prompted by a dreadful challenge by Coventry defender Robert Page and then just about everyone piled in.
Referee Joslin ended the game with seven yellow cards but he didn’t deal with this one too harshly, only Page got a card for that. It shouldn’t happen but something like that does liven up a game.
We’ve just one emergency loan to report this week with West Brom’s Lloyd Dyer joining QPR. He made his debut, playing the full ninety minutes, in the 1-1 draw at Millwall.
The Clarets get the weekend fixtures underway tomorrow night at Wolves – the full fixture list, which ends on Monday, is shown below – and then it’s a two week rest whilst the internationals take over.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 27th September | |
Burnley 3 Ipswich 0 | Millwall 1 QPR 1 |
Crystal Palace 2 Sheffield Wed 0 | Norwich 2 Hull 1 |
Crewe 0 Wolves 4 | Sheffield Utd 2 Plymouth 0 |
Leicester 0 Brighton 0 | Stoke 0 Cardiff 3 |
Luton 3 Preston 0 | . |
Wednesday 28th September | |
Coventry 3 Watford 1 | Southampton 0 Reading 0 |
Leeds 3 Derby 1 | . |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Wolves 4-0 v Crewe (away) |
Total goals scored | 30 |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Rob Hulse (Leeds) |
Highest Attendance | 27,470 - Norwich v Hull |
Lowest Attendance | 7,471 - Crewe v Wolves |
Total Yellow Cards | 35 |
Total Red Cards | 0 |
Most cards in a game | Coventry v Watford (7Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) |
7 | Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) |
6 | Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Rob Hulse (Leeds) Steve Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Marlon King (Watford) |
5 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Steve Howard (Luton) Leroy Lita (Reading) Ashley Young (Watford) |
4 | Dean Ashton (Norwich) Morten Bisgaard (Derby) Ahmet Brkovic (Luton) David Connolly (Leicester) David Healy (Leeds) Darius Henderson (Watford) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) Dave Nugent (Preston) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Sam Parkin (Ipswich) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) |
3 | Mark de Vries (Leicester) Kevin Doyle (Reading) Mickey Evans (Plymouth) Barry Hayles (Millwall) Paul Ifill (Sheffield Utd) Leon Knight (Brighton) Kenny Miller (Wolves) Kevin Nicholls (Luton) Darren Purse (Cardiff) Mark Rivers (Crewe) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 19 | 0 | Millwall | 20 | 3 |
| Burnley | 17 | 2 | Norwich | 18 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 21 | 0 | Plymouth | 23 | 0 |
| Coventry | 26 | 2 | Preston | 24 | 2 |
| Crewe | 9 | 0 | QPR | 26 | 4 |
| Crystal Palace | 25 | 0 | Reading | 16 | 0 |
| Derby | 25 | 2 | Sheffield Utd | 16 | 0 |
| Hull | 14 | 2 | Sheffield Wed | 13 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 15 | 3 | Southampton | 24 | 2 |
| Leeds | 16 | 1 | Stoke | 17 | 3 |
| Leicester | 23 | 1 | Watford | 21 | 1 |
| Luton | 16 | 1 | Wolves | 14 | 0 |
The Weekend Fixtures | |
Friday 30th September | |
Hull v Millwall | Wolves v Burnley |
Saturday 1st October | |
Brighton v Norwich | Preston v Southampton |
Cardiff v Luton | Reading v Sheffield Utd |
Derby v Leicester | Sheffield Wed v Coventry |
Ipswich v Crewe | Watford v Leeds |
Plymouth v Stoke | . |
Monday 3rd October | |
QPR v Crystal Palace | . |