Goals in the first and last minutes by Marlon Harewood and Matthew Etherington had given the Hammers a 2-0 win at
That gave Sunderland the opportunity to catch
They did recover in the second half and goals from Stephen Elliott and Sean Thornton reduced it to 3-2 but they were still beaten.
That saw them go down into third place when
Having never looked like scoring against the Clarets four days later the Latics hit two from Lee McCulloch and Nathan Ellington.
Glen Little scored with a diving header and thought he had given Reading the lead at
Gills’ boss Stan Ternent said of the goal, “I thought the ref made the correct decision because if he had given it I would never have heard the last of it. I managed Glen for six years and he never headed a ball like that.”
The draw wasn’t great news for Gillingham with two of the other relegation threatened clubs picking up maximum points in the east
Down the road at
Stoke had Clint Hill and Clive Clarke sent off in the last five minutes and both will now miss the clash with the Clarets tomorrow. Ironically the referee who sent them off was Michael Jones who gave Stoke a big lift at the Turf when he sent off Michael Duff.
That means things are getting even more desperate for
The visitors played much of the second half with ten men after Danny Dichio was sent off for the second time against
Leeds 0
Two draws to complete things, QPR and
Plymouth’s new signing Scott Taylor made his debut in this game, playing the last twenty minutes as a substitute, coming on for Marino Keith.
Fulham defender Dean Leacock has joined
So the New Year is underway, even if for two clubs for just nineteen minutes in the East Lancashire Lake District. The holiday programme comes to an end tomorrow and then it is time to prepare for the FA Cup.
The New Year's Day results | |
Saturday 1st January | |
Burnley v Leicester - abandoned | Preston 3 Sunderland 2 |
Derby 0 Cardiff 1 | QPR 0 Brighton 0 |
Gillingham 0 Reading 0 | Rotherham 1 Coventry 2 |
Ipswich 0 West Ham 2 | Sheffield Utd 0 Wigan 2 |
Leeds 0 Crewe 2 | Watford 1 Millwall 0 |
Nott'm Forest 1 Stoke 0 | Wolves 1 Plymouth 1 |
The New Year's Day stats | |
Biggest win | Crewe 2-0 v Leeds (away) |
Total goals scored | 19 |
Player scoring most goals | 3 - Richard Cresswell (Preston) |
Highest Attendance | 32,302 - Leeds v Crewe |
Lowest Attendance | 5,742 - Rotherham v Coventry |
Total Yellow Cards | 28 |
Total Red Cards | 5 |
Most cards in a game | 7 - Nott'm Forest v Sunderland (2R 5Y) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
17 | Dean Ashton (Crewe) |
15 | Nathan Ellington (Wigan) |
14 | Paul Furlong (QPR) |
12 | Darren Bent (Ipswich) Dave Kitson (Reading) Shefki Kuqi (Ipswich) Jason Roberts (Wigan) |
11 | Richard Cresswell (Preston) Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) |
10 | Robbie Blake (Burnley) Stephen Elliott (Sunderland) Marlon Harewood (West Ham) David Healy (Leeds) - 5 with Preston Kenny Miller (Wolves) |
9 | Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) Heidar Helguson (Watford) Grzegorz Rasiak (Derby) Paul Shaw (Sheffield Utd) - 2 with Rotherham Danny Webber (Watford) |
8 | Andy Gray (Sheffield Utd) Lee McCulloch (Wigan) Paul Shaw (Sheffield Utd) - 2 with Rotherham |
7 | Ade Akinbiyi (Stoke) Carl Cort (Wolves) Barry Hayles (Millwall) Mark Rivers (Crewe) Tommy Smith (Derby) Marcus Stewart (Sunderland) Paul Wotton (Plymouth) |
This week's fixtures | |
Monday 3rd January | |
Brighton v Watford | Plymouth v Ipswich |
Cardiff v Nott'm Forest | Reading v Derby |
Coventry v Leeds | Stoke v Burnley |
Crewe v Preston | Sunderland v Gillingham |
Leicester v QPR | West Ham v Sheffield Utd |
Millwall v Rotherham | . |
Tuesday 4th January | |
Wigan v Wolves | . |