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In the Championships – Top two win
The home side came back to equalise through Chris Brown but Chopra, yes the one who used to play for Newcastle, grabbed his second and what proved to be the winner still eight minutes short of half time.
RK boss Roy Keane admitted that he might have to make some moves in the January transfer window, apparently the six players signed on the last day of the last window were not enough.
Preston were at home to the obnoxious Dennis Wise's nasty Leeds. Nasty they may be, but that was about all as they were well and truly hammered by Preston at a Deepdale that was all lit up for Christmas. It was virtually the same Preston side that had lost at Burnley, Paul Simpson making just one change with Dave Nugent returning, but they had more than enough to beat a shabby Leeds side.
“We need fresh faces,” Wise said after this latest heavy defeat for Dirty Leeds. That's difficult to believe really, Kevin Blackwell was constantly telling us about all the good players he'd signed.
Burnley went third following the win at Luton, and that was because somehow West Brom were unable to beat QPR. When Nathan Ellington and Diomansy Kamara gave them a two goal lead before half time you would have thought you were safe enough to put Jimmy Mullen's house on the Baggies winning this particular game, but QPR came back to level at 2-2 and equalised again after Kamara had got his second.
Wolves failed to make it into the top six after suffering their fourth successive away defeat, and it is hard to know how they came away from Southampton with only a two goal loss. “Unacceptable,” was the word Mick McCarthy used to describe the performance as goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kenwyne Jones proved enough for the home team.
Unacceptable it might have been for Wolves, but what about Palace who were beaten at Hillsborough by managerless Sheffield Wednesday. “Unprofessional performance, I don't understand why we can't sense danger,” the Legend said after this latest defeat. For one minute, with words like that, I thought he'd turned up at Edgeley Park.
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Jamie Cureton was another player to score against a former club when he netted for Colchester against Norwich at Carrow Road. It wasn't enough to win the game for them, Dickson Etuhu got an equaliser for the home side and manager Peter Grant thought they should have gone on and won the game.
There were goals galore in the clash between the bottom two at Roots Hall and Southend will be kicking themselves that they didn't win this one against Hull. They led twice, and then at 2-2 Hull had Ian Ashbee sent off for kicking someone in the back. But it was ten man Hull who scored to win the game and lift themselves off the bottom with Southend replacing them.
Barnsley are stuck in between them and they were another side to lose a lead. They went in front early at Derby through Bobby Hassell, his first goal of the season. They still led going into the last twenty minutes but Giles Barnes then scored twice in four minutes to turn the game in the favour of the home side. The second of them was another top strike, following on from his goal of the day at Plymouth on Saturday.
There's sad news to report from Leicester where Stoke were beaten 2-1 by the home side after going in front. Leicester's Danny Tiatto has been accused by Michael Duberry of racially abusing Salif Diao. The FA are set to speak to Duberry following his accusations.
It is four wins out of four now for Birmingham and Steve Bruce, and suddenly Bruce is no longer under pressure. A goal from Nicklas Bendtner was enough for them to take all three points at the Ricoh against Coventry City.
Finally, Plymouth and Ipswich were involved in a 1-1 draw at Home Park. Sylvain Legwinski is very much in goalscoring form for the Tractor Boys, this is his third in three games, and this latest goal came in the very first minute.
It was Holloween night, in honour of the manager but he's become a Scotsman after this game. “If Ipswich deserved a point out of that then I'm Jock McGinty from Scotland,” he said after the game. He added: “I'm trying to lay the foundations for Ian Holloway's Plymouth but the foundations are still wet.”
Maybe the foundations will be better when Birmingham are the visitors on Saturday. That, and all the other fixtures are shown below.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 31st October | |
Coventry 0 Birmingham 1 | Preston 4 Leeds 1 |
Leicester 2 Stoke 1 | Sheffield Wed 3 Crystal Palace 2 |
Luton 0 Burnley 2 | Southend 2 Hull 3 |
Norwich 1 Colchester 1 | RK Sunderland 1 Cardiff 2 |
Plymouth 1 Ipswich 1 | West Brom 3 QPR 3 |
Wednesday 1st November | |
Derby 2 Barnsley 1 | Southampton 2 Wolves 0 |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Preston 4-1 v Leeds (home) |
Total goals scored | 39 |
Player scoring most goals | Giles Barnes (Derby) |
Highest Attendance | 27,212 - Coventry v Birmingham |
Lowest Attendance | 7,664 - Luton v Burnley |
Total Yellow Cards | 38 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Plymouth v Ipswich (8Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
10 | Michael Chopra (Cardiff) |
9 | Robert Earnshaw (Norwich) Andy Gray (Burnley) |
8 | Diomansy Kamara (West Brom) Alan Lee (Ipswich) Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton) Rowan Vine (Luton) |
7 | Jamie Cureton (Colchester) |
6 | Freddy Eastwood (Southend) Iain Hume (Leicester) Jon Parkin (Hull) |
5 | Nicklas Bendtner (Birmingham) Dexter Blackstock (QPR) Carlos Edwards (Luton) Barry Hayles (Plymouth) David Healy (Leeds) Steve Howard (Luton) Arturo Lupoli (Derby) Kevin Phillips (West Brom) Mark Richards (Barnsley) Martin Rowlands (QPR) 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 | 22 | 3 | Luton | 16 | 2 |
| Birmingham | 28 | 4 | Norwich | 26 | 3 |
| Burnley | 19 | 4 | Plymouth | 28 | 1 |
| Cardiff | 22 | 3 | Preston | 28 | 2 |
| Colchester | 19 | 0 | QPR | 32 | 0 |
| Coventry | 25 | 1 | Sheffield Wed | 25 | 2 |
| Crystal Palace | 20 | 0 | Southampton | 26 | 0 |
| Derby | 35 | 2 | Southend | 23 | 0 |
| Hull | 33 | 2 | Stoke | 28 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 49 | 2 | RK Sunderland | 26 | 3 |
| Leeds | 38 | 1 | West Brom | 40 | 2 |
| Leicester | 27 | 2 | Wolves | 23 | 2 |
This Weekend's Fixtures | |
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 | . |