I bumped into some Leeds fans a week ago on my way back from Southampton. They were far from impressed with how their side had played at Rochdale; I'd have loved to have seen them again this weekend as they came to terms with the hammering at Hillsborough.
I've seen the word humiliation used on several occasions, most often from the mouth of Brian McDermott. And all this with new signing Cameron Stewart in the side. I heard he was fouled in the first couple of minutes and no one saw him again.
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| Leeds debut for Cameron Stewart in 6-0 defeat |
It was the biggest Championship win of the weekend, and this after Leicester's 4-1 demolition of Derby on the Friday that took the Foxes seven points clear of us at the top.
I thought Derby were very disappointing but Leicester were very impressive with former Claret David Nugent and Jamie Vardy proving too much for the beleaguered Derby defence.
After our draw there in mid-December, Sky, on the live coverage, pointed to the fact that Leicester had the toughest set of fixtures coming up over the holiday period and just beyond. They did; they had to play QPR, Reading and Derby in a run of five games, alongside games against Bolton and Millwall.
They've won all five. We remain the last team to take points from them and they now sit well at the top of the league with 54 points.
I suspected a win at Yeovil might give us a bit of a gap from QPR. I thought they might come a cropper at Ipswich who went into the game on the back of an eight game unbeaten run. No such luck, QPR won 3-1 and without the help of a Charlie Austin goal.
They are one point behind us; Derby are now a further five points behind and then come Nottingham Forest and Brighton to completed the top six.
Wednesday, who looked relegation certainties a few weeks ago, now have five teams below them. None of the five picked up a point. Millwall, under new manager Ian Holloway, Doncaster and Yeovil all lost but the other two, Charlton and Barnsley, saw their game called off at the Valley.
It's staggering when Barnsley boss Danny Wilson, while sympathising with his travelling fans, confirmed that they knew nothing of any doubt until 11:35 a.m.
He said: "We expected it to go ahead because they've had a dome on to protect the pitch from the weather over the last ten days so we thought it would be much better. But when we got on it, it was far from that.
"It's the correct decision. The referee's got a concern about the players' safety which is paramount in anybody's eyes. We're just frustrated that we haven't had any prior warning to it, otherwise we maybe could have come down and looked at it at teatime yesterday."
Charlton have confirmed they did not deem it necessary to call in the referee on the Friday and were confident the game would go ahead. I think they, and potentially Williamson have some explaining to do as to why the appropriate actions weren't taken. Getting your ticket money refunded is hardly compensation for those who have travelled to the game.
The results and stats from the weekend are below along with the leading goalscorers, each club's red and yellow card count, the highest and lowest attendances and this week's fixtures.
| The Results | |
| Friday 10th January | |
| LEICESTER 4 DERBY 1 | |
| Saturday 11th January | |
| BLACKBURN 1 DONCASTER 0 | IPSWICH 1 QPR 3 |
| BLACKPOOL 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 2 | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 6 LEEDS 0 |
| BOLTON 1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 | WATFORD 0 READING 1 |
| BRIGHTON 1 BIRMINGHAM 0 | WIGAN 3 BOURNEMOUTH 0 |
| CHARLTON v BARNSLEY - postponed | YEOVIL 1 BURNLEY 2 |
| HUDDERSFIELD 1 MILLWALL 0 | |
| The Stats | |
| Biggest Win | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 6-0 v LEEDS (home) |
| Total Goals Scored | 29 (19 home - 10 away) |
| Player Scoring Most Goals | MUSTAPHA CARAYOL (MIDDLESBROUGH) v BLACKPOOL CAOLAN LAVERY (SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY) v LEEDS DAVID NUGENT (LEICESTER) v DERBY |
| Highest Attendance | 26,796 - BRIGHTON v BIRMINGHAM |
| Lowest Attendance | 6,293 - YEOVIL v BURNLEY |
| Total Yellow Cards | 40 |
| Total Red Cards | 2 |
| Most Cards in a Game | WATFORD v READING (7Y 1R) Ref: KEITH STROUD |
| Leading Goalscorers (League Only) | |
| 17 | ROSS McCORMACK (LEEDS) - includes 1 penalty |
| 16 | DANNY INGS (BURNLEY) - includes 1 penalty JORDAN RHODES (BLACKBURN) - includes 3 penalties |
| 14 | DAVID NUGENT (LEICESTER) - includes 8 penalties |
| 12 | CHRIS MARTIN (DERBY) - includes 3 penalties |
| 11 | CHARLIE AUSTIN (QPR) - includes 3 penalties CRAIG BRYSON (DERBY) TROY DEENEY (WATFORD) - includes 3 penalties DAVID McGOLDRICK (IPSWICH) - includes 1 penalty SAM VOKES (BURNLEY) - includes 2 penalties |
| 10 | LEWIS GRABBAN (BOURNEMOUTH) - includes 2 penalties JAMES VAUGHAN (HUDDERSFIELD) - includes 2 penalties |
| 9 | ALBERT ADOMAH (MIDDLESBROUGH) |
| 8 | JAMIE VARDY (LEICSTER) CONNOR WICKHAM (SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY) |
| 7 | MUSTAPHA CARAYOL (MIDDLESBROUGH) TOM INCE (BLACKPOOL) - includes 3 penalties ADAM LE FONDRE (READING) - includes 2 penalties DARYL MURPHY (IPSWICH) CHRIS O'GRADY (BARNSLEY) - includes 1 penalty ANDY REID (NOTTINGHAM FOREST) MATT SMITH (LEEDS) JAMIE WARD (DERBY) |
| Hat Tricks | |
| Date | Player & Game |
| 10/08/13 | 3: TROY DEENEY - WATFORD v BOURNEMOUTH (home) |
| 24/08/13 | 3: JAMES VAUGHAN - HUDDERSFIELD v BOURNEMOUTH (home) |
| 14/09/13 | 3: CRAIG BRYSON - DERBY v MILLWALL (away) |
| 21/09/13 | 4: JESSE LINGARD - BIRMINGHAM v SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (home) |
| 10/11/13 | 4: ROSS McCORMACK - LEEDS v CHARLTON (away) |
| 07/12/13 | 4: CHRIS MARTIN - DERBY v BLACKPOOL (home) |
| Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) | |||||||||
| Club | Y | R | Y | R | Club | Y | R | Y | R |
| League | Total | League | Total | ||||||
| BARNSLEY | 33 | 3 | 34 | 3 | IPSWICH | 29 | 1 | 30 | 1 |
| BIRMINGHAM | 46 | 2 | 53 | 3 | LEEDS | 39 | 2 | 44 | 2 |
| BLACKBURN | 44 | 3 | 46 | 4 | LEICESTER | 30 | 1 | 33 | 1 |
| BLACKPOOL | 43 | 9 | 44 | 9 | MIDDLESBROUGH | 38 | 4 | 40 | 4 |
| BOLTON | 43 | 1 | 44 | 1 | MILLWALL | 40 | 4 | 44 | 5 |
| BOURNEMOUTH | 39 | 3 | 41 | 3 | NOTTINGHAM FOREST | 54 | 3 | 61 | 3 |
| BRIGHTON | 45 | 2 | 47 | 2 | QPR | 34 | 1 | 35 | 1 |
| BURNLEY | 32 | 2 | 37 | 3 | READING | 49 | 3 | 54 | 3 |
| CHARLTON | 31 | 2 | 34 | 2 | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY | 47 | 1 | 49 | 2 |
| DERBY | 38 | 2 | 46 | 2 | WATFORD | 48 | 1 | 53 | 1 |
| DONCASTER | 38 | 2 | 41 | 2 | WIGAN | 40 | 2 | 46 | 2 |
| HUDDERSFIELD | 37 | 2 | 41 | 2 | YEOVIL | 47 | 1 | 55 | 1 |
| Highest and Lowest Attendances | |||
| Highest | Lowest | ||
| Att | Fixture | Att | Fixture |
| 33,432 | LEEDS v BRIGHTON (03/08) | 5,530 | YEOVIL v BLACKPOOL (03/12) |
| 31,031 | LEEDS v BARNSLEY (21/12) | 6,053 | YEOVIL v CHARLTON (03/12) |
| 30,416 | LEICESTER v NOTT'M FOREST (09/11) | 6,149 | YEOVIL v WIGAN (10/11) |
| 30,367 | LEEDS v MIDDLESBROUGH (23/11) | 6,293 | YEOVIL v BURNLEY (11/01) |
| 30,145 | LEEDS v BLACKBURN (01/01) | 6,454 | DONCASTER v MILLWALL (29/12) |
| 28,282 | BRIGHTON v BOURNEMOUTH (01/01) | 6,476 | YEOVIL v LEICESTER (01/10) |
| 28,276 | NOTTINGHAM FOREST v DERBY (28/09) | 6,620 | DONCASTER v YEOVIL (23/11) |
| 28,070 | NOTT'M FOREST v BOURNEMOUTH (19/10) | 6,769 | DONCASTER v BOURNEMOUTH (31/08) |
| 27,912 | BRIGHTON v BLACKBURN (09/11) | 6,873 | YEOVIL v BRIGHTON (19/10) |
| 27,755 | BRIGHTON v NOTTM FOREST (05/10) | 7,047 | YEOVIL v DERBY (24/08) |
| The Next Fixtures | |
| Saturday 18th January | |
| BARNSLEY v BLACKPOOL | LEEDS v LEICESTER (12:15) |
| BIRMINGHAM v YEOVIL | MIDDLESBROUGH v CHARLTON |
| BOURNEMOUTH v WATFORD | MILLWALL v IPSWICH |
| BURNLEY v SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY | NOTTINGHAM FOREST v BLACKBURN |
| DERBY v BRIGHTON | QPR v HUDDERSFIELD |
| DONCASTER v WIGAN | READING v BOLTON |