A Championship full of draws

26 September 2011 09:14
No less than seven of the Championship games over the weekend ended in draws, starting on Friday with the game between Brighton and Leeds and ending yesterday with Cardiff and Leicester failing to find a goal between them. Nine card Deadman at Pompey The league's beginning to settle down after most clubs have played eight games, and to ensure there is some normality about it we've now had our first managerial sacking with Sean O'Driscoll being replaced by Dean Saunders at Doncaster. Our opponents tomorrow, Nottingham Forest, I suppose, got the result of the weekend. They were the only team to pick up an away victory with an Ishmael Miller enough to give them all three points at Watford. Watford are still searching for their first home win of the season. That sounds familiar after our draw with Southampton, but it's not just us and Watford. Barnsley and Bristol City are also searching for a first three pointer in front of their home fans. We were the last team to win away last season, we don't want to be the last to win at home this time round. One notable statistic from the weekend games is the total of 35 yellow cards. That's not particularly high, just one short of three cards per game, but incredibly no less than 19 of them came in two games. There were 10 at Brighton on Friday with both the home club and Leeds picking up five. Perhaps there was no surprise there. Those two clubs have the worst disciplinary records in the division. The referee was Lee Probert who has not generally been over generous with the cards. The same can't be said for Darren Deadman who was at it again at Portsmouth. There were nine yellow cards with six of them picked up by visitors Blackpool. Deadman is again becoming an official to avoid, he's now just two short of a half century of cards this season. This is a referee with over 750 cards in just over six years. Looking at the league table, the top five clubs have pulled between four and six points ahead of the rest and probably the one that surprises me there is Derby who looked anything but a good side when we beat them recently. I wish I wasn't seeing us so close to the bottom of the league but I don't think anyone can be too surprised with the three clubs occupying the relegation places right now, Coventry, Bristol City and Doncaster. All three were tipped to struggle before the kick off. The league table is interesting right now if you look at the teams we've played so far. We've played the top three, four in the top six, and all but one of our games, the home draw against Watford, have come against teams currently in the top half of the table. We've now got two games this week against teams a lot closer to us - hopefully giving us a real opportunity to get away from those bottom positions. The results, stats, leading scorers, disciplinary records, high and low attendances and the next fixtures are all below. The Weekend Results Friday 23rd September Brighton & Hove Albion 3 Leeds United 3   Saturday 24th September Birmingham City 1 Barnsley 1 Doncaster Rovers 1 Crystal Palace 0 Bristol City 1 Hull City 1 Middlesbrough 0 Ipswich Town 0 Burnley 1 Southampton 1 Portsmouth 1 Blackpool 0 Coventry City 1 Reading 1 West Ham United 1 Peterborough United 0 Derby County 3 Millwall 0 Watford 0 Nottingham Forest 1 Sunday 25th September Cardiff City 0 Leicester City 0     The Weekend Stats Biggest Win Derby County 3-0 v Millwall (home) Total Goals Scored 21 (13 home - 8 away) Player Scoring Most Goals2 Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion)Ross McCormack (Leeds United) Highest Attendance 29,895 - West Ham United v Peterborough United Lowest Attendance 9,362 - Doncaster Rovers v Crystal Palace Total Yellow Cards 35 Total Red Cards 0 Most Cards in a Game Brighton & Hove Albion v Leeds United (10Y) Ref: Lee Probert   Leading Goalscorers (League Only) 8 Ross McCormack (Leeds United) 6 Rickie Lambert (Southampton) - including 1 penalty 5 Charlie Austin (Burnley)Ashley Barnes (Brighton & Hove Albion) - including 2 penaltiesMarvin Emnes (Middlesbrough)Kevin Phillips (Blackpool)Chris Wood (Birmingham City) 4 Keith Andrews (Ipswich Town)Carlton Cole (West Ham United)David Connolly (Southampton)Steve Davies (Derby County)Adam Lallana (Southampton)Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion) 3 Robert Earnshaw (Cardiff City)Lukas Jutkiewicz (Coventry City) - including 1 penaltyNicky Maynard (Bristol City)Grant McCann (Peterborough United) - including 1 penaltySean Scannell (Crystal Palace)Paul Taylor (Peterborough United)Lee Tomlin (Peterborough United)   Hat Tricks  Date Player & Game 20/08/11 3: Lee Tomlin - PETERBOROUGH UNITED v Ipswich Town 10/09/11 3: Rickie Lambert - SOUTHAMPTON v Nottingham Forest 11/09/11 3: Chris Wood - BIRMINGHAM CITY v Millwall   Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) Club Y R Y R Club Y R Y R   League   Total   League  Total  Barnsley 12 0 13 0 Ipswich Town 8 2 8 2 Birmingham City 10 0 10 0 Leeds United 20 4 24 4 Blackpool 19 0 20 1 Leicester City 18 2 22 2 Brighton and Hove Albion 25 1 31 1 Middlesbrough 11 2 12 2 Bristol City 11 0 12 0 Millwall 16 0 19 0 Burnley 8 1 12 1 Nottingham Forest 12 0 15 0 Cardiff City 9 0 15 0 Peterborough United 10 0 12 0 Coventry City 9 1 10 1 Portsmouth 20 2 23 2 Crystal Palace 11 0 13 0 Reading 9 0 11 0 Derby County 13 1 13 1 Southampton 5 1 5 1 Doncaster Rovers 10 0 10 0 Watford 11 0 12 0 Hull City 12 0 12 0 West Ham United 10 1 10 2   Highest and Lowest Attendances Highest Lowest Att Fixture Att Fixture 33,465 West Ham United v Portsmouth (10/09) 7,778 Doncaster Rovers v Bristol City (27/08) 29,895 West Ham United v Peterborough U (24/09) 7,901 Peterborough United v Burnley (17/09) 28,252 West Ham United v Leeds United (21/08) 7,928 Peterborough United v Ipswich Town (20/08) 27,356 Nottingham Forest v Derby County (17/09) 8,685 Peterborough United v Hull City (10/09) 27,210 Derby County v Birmingham City (06/08) 9,362 Doncaster Rovers v Crystal Palace (24/09) 25,860 Southampton v Leeds United (06/08) 9,464 Doncaster Rovers v Nottingham Forest (16/08) 25,680 West Ham United v Cardiff City (07/08) 9,733 Barnsley v Watford (17/09) 25,650 Leeds United v Middlesbrough (13/08) 10,033 Millwall v Barnsley (27/08) 24,784 Southampton v Nottingham Forest (10/09) 10,240 Millwall v Peterborough United (17/08) 24,426 Nottingham Forest v Leicester City (20/08) 10,501 Barnsley v Southampton (13/08)   The Next Fixtures Tuesday 27th September Brighton & Hove Albion v Crystal Palace Doncaster Rovers v Hull City Bristol City v Reading Portsmouth v Peterborough United Burnley v Nottingham Forest Watford v Millwall Coventry City v Blackpool West Ham United v Ipswich Town Derby County v Barnsley   Wednesday 28th September Cardiff City v Souothampton Middlesbrough v Leicester City

Source: FOOTYMAD