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In the Championship – New Year but no change
Sunderland’s 90 points in 1997/98 is the highest ever recorded for a side failing to win promotion whilst their 105 points total a year later is a league record. I suspect that Reading could well break that big total but there is no way they are going to reach 90 points and fail to go up, the Madejski will be staging Premiership football next season.
The year started even better than the old one ended and they hit Cardiff for five as manager Steve Coppell again played down their season and suggested the Welsh side were always in the game. Two each from Dave Kitson and Steve Sidwell ensured the big victory.
Leeds fancy their chances of grabbing the second spot from Yorkshire neighbours Sheffield United and their chances were boosted with a 3-0 win at Plymouth, the win giving them maximum points over the four games.
Richard Cresswell and Robbie Blake were chosen to play up front and both scored, whilst Rob Hulse came on as a sub and got the third from the spot. David Healy didn’t even get off the bench throughout the ninety minutes and 15 goals a season striker Ian Moore didn’t even get on the bench.
It put the Blades under some pressure and when they played last night they found themselves a goal down early in the game. But the club who goes through strikers more often than Neil Warnock has a tantrum came storming back to win the game 3-1 to restore the eleven point gap they hold over Leeds.
Every time I think Aidy Boothroyd’s upwardly looking Watford are heading downwards they come up with a result and they did just that again with a victory at Luton in what apparently is a derby game. Now I’m sorry but I just cannot get excited about Luton v Watford and cannot believe for one minute that it could ever fall into the category of a passionate derby.
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Crystal Palace and Preston complete the top six and both had good results. Palace’s win over struggling Leicester meant they, like Leeds had picked up the full twelve points in the week and they even had the luxury of seeing Andy Johnson miss a penalty. He did score, right at the end to put the game out of reach.
What about Leicester though, I wonder just how long Craig Levein can have left. He’s had a major impact at the Crisp Bowl since taking over, they have got a lot worse than they were when he first arrived. I suppose that’s what you get for trying to create a Scottish team in our league. Leicester could be fighting for their lives by the end of the season, Levein won’t, he’ll be well gone by then.
Preston won easily at Norwich but at a cost and in some ways it was of their own making. Norwich revealed in the match programme that Dickson Etuhu was now their player after he had signed permanently from North End. That wasn’t the case, he was still on loan, and Preston incredibly allowed him to play.
Now that’s a recipe for a good performance and perhaps a match winning goal, but Etuhu instead committed a bad foul that saw Adam Nowland suffer a serious injury with a broken leg.
A furious Bill Davies hit out afterwards, describing the challenge as naughty and unnecessary. He also hit out at referee Nigel Miller (yes, Nigel Miller) for taking no action against the player. But he knew he could have prevented it by making sure Etuhu didn’t play. The deal’s gone through now, there was never going to be a way back to Deepdale for him, and Preston have pocketed around £450,000 for him.
Down at the bottom there is no sign of Sheffield Wednesday who followed up their over the Clarets with another three points at Hillsborough over bottom club Crewe. Paul Sturrock didn’t bother with Hogmanay this year and after seeing them win at the Turf he was busy making two new signings ahead of the Crewe game. He paid around £110,000 for Rotherham’s Deon Burton and signed Marcus Tudgay on loan from Derby, and Tudgay repaid him with a goal on his debut.
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There was further bad news for Dario G with Millwall also winning. It’s two wins running for Tuttle’s team and for the second time they came from a goal behind to win 2-1. This time Derby scored on the hour through Seth Johnson who has just apparently discovered how to score goals, this was his third in two games, but two in five minutes from the Marvins, Elliott and Williams was enough to take them three points clear of the bottom club.
Brighton are back in the bottom three and fell to defeat at Southampton where George Burley finally got his first win as Saints boss. It was a win that would not have happened the same way had Redknapp still been around.
Dexter Blackstock scored both goals and he would still have been on loan at Derby, the second and winning goal was set up for him by Nathan Dyer who in all probability would have still been wearing Burnley’s number 18 shirt.
Dexter Blackstock scored both goals and he would still have been on loan at Derby, the second and winning goal was set up for him by Nathan Dyer who in all probability would have still been wearing Burnley’s number 18 shirt.
Goalscoring sensation Sammy Bangoura has had a good Christmas. He arrived at Turf Moor on Boxing Day ready to smash a Stoke record but he’s not scored a single goal in four games and they twice had to come from behind to get a point at home against Ipswich, and that was their only point from the four games.
Finally Wolves brought the biggest ever crowd to the Ricoh Arena but did precious little else. They fell behind early in the game and a Joleon Lescott own goal ten minutes before half time was enough to give Coventry the points.
There’s a break now for the FA Cup and the next league games will be played the in just over a week’s time. By that time there could be new players at clubs all over the place with the transfer window now open.
The next league fixtures are shown below and we have also included the average attendances at grounds in the league.
The New Year Bank Holiday Results | |
Monday 2nd January | |
Coventry 2 Wolves 0 | QPR 1 Burnley 1 |
Crystal Palace 2 Leicester 0 | Reading 5 Cardiff 1 |
Luton 1 Watford 2 | Sheffield Wed 3 Crewe 0 |
Millwall 2 Derby 1 | Southampton 2 Brighton 1 |
Norwich 0 Preston 3 | Stoke 2 Ipswich 2 |
Plymouth 0 Leeds 3 | . |
Tuesday 3rd January | |
Hull 1 Sheffield Utd 3 | . |
The New Year Bank Holiday Stats | |
Biggest win | Reading 5-1 v Cardiff (home) |
Total goals scored | 38 |
Player scoring most goals | Dexter Blackstock (Southampton) |
Highest Attendance | 26,851 - Coventry v Wolves |
Lowest Attendance | 9,523 - Millwall v Derby |
Total Yellow Cards | 21 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Luton v Watford (3Y 1R) |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
12 | Ade Akinbiyi (Burnley) Cameron Jerome (Cardiff) Marlon King (Watford) |
11 | Kevin Doyle (Reading) Dave Kitson (Reading) |
10 | Dean Ashton (Norwich) |
9 | Carl Cort (Wolves) Rob Hulse (Leeds) Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace) Steven Kabba (Sheffield Utd) Neil Shipperley (Sheffield Utd) Ashley Young (Watford) |
8 | Sammy Bangoura (Stoke) David Healy (Leeds) Steve Howard (Luton) Gary McSheffrey (Coventry) Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace) |
7 | Dele Adebola (Coventry) Paul Gallagher (Stoke) Darius Henderson (Watford) Inigo Idiakez (Derby) Jason Koumas (Cardiff) Garreth O'Connor (Burnley) Danny Webber (Sheffield Utd) |
6 | Dexter Blackstock (Southampton) - 3 with Derby Robbie Blake (Leeds) Ahmet Brkovic (Luton) Mark de Vries (Leicester) Warren Feeney (Luton) Joey Gudjonsson (Leicester) Phil Jagielka (Sheffield Utd) Leroy Lita (Reading) Dave Nugent (Preston) Steve Sidwell (Reading) |
Disciplinary Record (all games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Brighton | 51 | 2 | Millwall | 61 | 11 |
| Burnley | 44 | 3 | Norwich | 48 | 2 |
| Cardiff | 48 | 2 | Plymouth | 43 | 0 |
| Coventry | 57 | 4 | Preston | 45 | 2 |
| Crewe | 27 | 1 | QPR | 58 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 59 | 2 | Reading | 30 | 0 |
| Derby | 46 | 4 | Sheffield Utd | 48 | 1 |
| Hull | 27 | 3 | Sheffield Wed | 34 | 1 |
| Ipswich | 37 | 4 | Southampton | 49 | 4 |
| Leeds | 48 | 2 | Stoke | 51 | 6 |
| Leicester | 58 | 4 | Watford | 44 | 3 |
| Luton | 36 | 3 | Wolves | 36 | 1 |
Average Attendances (league only) | |||
Avge | Club | High | Low |
25,118 | Norwich City | 27,470 | 23,838 |
24,323 | Southampton | 30,173 | 19,086 |
24,169 | Ipswich | 29,184 | 22,551 |
23,989 | Wolves | 27,980 | 21,747 |
23,948 | Sheffield Wednesday | 29,986 | 20,244 |
23,343 | Derby | 26,807 | 21,434 |
22,642 | Sheffield United | 30,558 | 17,739 |
21,774 | Leicester | 24,873 | 18,856 |
21,667 | Leeds | 26,387 | 18,353 |
20,649 | Coventry | 26,851 | 16,156 |
19,592 | Hull City | 22,201 | 17,698 |
19,225 | Crystal Palace | 22,400 | 17,291 |
18,441 | Reading | 22,068 | 14,027 |
15,290 | Stoke | 20,408 | 11,125 |
15,065 | Watford | 16,988 | 12,152 |
14,244 | Preston | 18,867 | 12,453 |
13,596 | Plymouth | 17,726 | 10,460 |
13,450 | QPR | 15,976 | 10,901 |
12,601 | Burnley | 17,912 | 10,431 |
11,707 | Cardiff | 16,403 | 8,724 |
9.100 | Millwall | 12,920 | 7,674 |
9,091 | Luton Town | 10,248 | 7,475 |
6,993 | Crewe | 8,942 | 5,687 |
6,713 | Brighton | 7,341 | 6,132 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Friday 13th January | |
Wolves v Luton | . |
Saturday 14th January | |
Brighton v Leeds | Plymouth v Norwich |
Cardiff v Burnley | Preston v Millwall |
Derby v Crewe | QPR v Southampton |
Hull v Crystal Palace | Reading v Coventry |
Ipswich v Sheffield Utd | Sheffield We v Leicester |
Monday 16th January | |
Watford v Stoke | . |