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Results had gone our way on the Saturday with Swansea losing at Derby and both Leeds and Nottingham Forest held at home to Ipswich and Doncaster respectively. QPR, of the teams above us were the only winners.
It continued yesterday with former Claret Andy Gray scoring twice for Barnsley to earn a draw at Cardiff and it looked as though we were going to completely get away with it with 88 minutes gone at Norwich tonight and the score at 1-1 against Bristol City.
Then, unfortunately, Norwich, the late goal experts, scored twice to win the game 3-1 and push themselves clear in second place behind leaders QPR.
Overall, having lost, we couldn't have hoped for much better with only Swansea of the two six playing away from home and little damage has been done.
The highlight of the weekend just has to be Derby's opener against Swansea. It was one of those daft own goals and whilst not quite on a par with the one we got recently at Watford it was still a classic as Ashley Williams played the ball back to his goalkeeper Dorus de Vries only to see it cross the line before the keeper could get to it.
It's still so tight at the top and a win tomorrow in the first of our games in hand will take us to within one point of the play offs. We need that win against managerless Coventry who have now apparently sacked ten managers since the departure of Gordon Strachan a decade ago.
They've slipped dramatically but should be safe enough although Scunthorpe could put some real pressure on the clubs just above the drop zone if they beat Preston tomorrow. A Scunthorpe win could make things interesting, a Preston win would make little difference at this time.
The reporting over the weekend were highlighting Hull's away record. They have now gone 14 away league games without losing, winning seven and drawing seven. The last team they lost away from home was when the suffered a 4-0 hammering at Burnley in September.
Players going back to their old clubs usually want to make a name for themselves, and that was never more evident when former Watford players Darius Henderson and Lee Williamson returned to Vicarage Road with Sheffield United. They both certainly made names for themselves as both were sent off by referee Dean Whitestone. I have to admit that Williamson's red card looked somewhat dubious but it took Sheffield United's red card total for the season to ten.
There are just three re-arranged games this midweek including ours and that crucial bottom of the table clash at Scunthorpe. The third game sees Ipswich face Watford at Portman Road.
The weekend results are shown below along with the stats, the league's leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and tomorrow's fixtures.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 12th March | |
Burnley 0 Millwall 3 | Portsmouth 0 Middlesbrough 0 |
Coventry 0 Hull 1 | QPR 2 Crystal Palace 1 |
Derby 2 Swansea 1 | Scunthorpe 0 Leicester 3 |
Leeds 0 Ipswich 0 | Watford 3 Sheffield United 0 |
Nottingham Forest 0 Doncaster 0 | |
Sunday 13th March | |
Cardiff 2 Barnsley 2 | |
Monday 14th March | |
Norwich 3 Bristol City 1 | |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Leicester 3-0 v Scunthorpe (away) |
Total goals scored | 24 (12 home - 12 away) |
Player scoring most goals | Andy Gray (Barnsley) |
Highest Attendance | 27,432 - Leeds v Ipswich |
Lowest Attendance | 6,528 - Scunthorpe v Leicester |
Total Yellow Cards | 32 |
Total Red Cards | 3 |
Most cards in a game | Watford v Sheffield United (4Y 2R) - Dean Whitestone |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
20 | Danny Graham (Watford) - includes 1 penalty |
18 | Shane Long (Reading) - includes 5 penalties |
16 | Luciano Becchio (Leeds) Grant Holt (Norwich) - includes 2 penalties |
15 | Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff) Bill Sharp (Doncaster) - includes 4 penalties Scott Sinclair (Swansea) - includes 5 penalties Adel Taarabt (QPR) - includes 6 penalties |
14 | Max Gradel (Leeds) - includes 2 penalties |
13 | Kris Commons (Derby) - includes 2 penalties Andy King (Leicester) |
12 | Heidar Helguson (QPR) - includes 5 penalties Steve Morison (Millwall) - includes 1 penalty |
11 | Chris Iwelumo (Burnley) Lewis McGugan (Nottingham Forest) - includes 2 penalties Davide Somma (Leeds) |
10 | Wes Hoolahan (Norwich) - includes 4 penalties Leroy Lita (Middlesbrough) - includes 2 penalties David Nugent (Portsmouth) Brett Pitman (Bristol City) - includes 3 penalties Marvin Sordell (Watford) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
11th Sep | 3 - Chris Iwelumo - BURNLEY v Preston |
14th Sep | 3 - James Coppinger - DONCASTER v Norwich |
14th Sep | 3 - James Vaughan - CRYSTAL PALACE v Portsmouth |
28th Sep | 3 - Jon Parkin - Leeds v PRESTON |
30th Oct | 3 - Jonny Howson - Scunthorpe v LEEDS |
13th Nov | 3 - Luciano Becchio - LEEDS v Bristol City |
27th Nov | 3 - Grant Holt - NORWICH v Leeds |
28th Dec | 3 - Wes Hoolahan - NORWICH v Sheffield United |
1st Jan | 3 - Jason Puncheon - MILLWALL v Crystal Palace |
5th Feb | 3 - Matt Fryatt - Scunthorpe v HULL |
15th Feb | 3 - Connor Wickham - Doncaster v IPSWICH |
Disciplinary Record (all domestic games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 55 | 2 | Middlesbrough | 52 | 1 |
| Bristol City | 47 | 2 | Millwall | 54 | 4 |
| Burnley | 63 | 4 | Norwich | 62 | 3 |
| Cardiff | 48 | 1 | Nottingham Forest | 54 | 1 |
| Coventry | 55 | 5 | Portsmouth | 65 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 68 | 6 | Preston | 75 | 5 |
| Derby | 64 | 2 | QPR | 58 | 6 |
| Doncaster | 41 | 3 | Reading | 60 | 4 |
| Hull | 66 | 2 | Scunthorpe | 44 | 2 |
| Ipswich | 55 | 4 | Sheffield United | 60 | 10 |
| Leeds | 74 | 3 | Swansea | 57 | 2 |
| Leicester | 43 | 2 | Watford | 40 | 1 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Tuesday 15th March | |
Burnley v Coventry | Scunthorpe v Preston |
Ipswich v Watford | |