Holloway hits out at Udinese's Hertfordshire franchise

11 February 2013 16:51
The weekend of Championship games kicked off on Friday night with Crystal Palace coming from two goals behind to earn a point in a 2-2 draw at Watford. Ian Holloway not happy with the loophole being exploited by Udinese

It was an enjoyable game and I don't think many would have backed Palace to get anything when the home side went 2-0 up in just 14 minutes.

You'd have thought Palace boss Ian Holloway might have been a happy man after the recovery but he was angry and turned that anger on Watford and the way they are going about things this season.

Holloway admitted to not having known about their policy of bringing in 11 loan players from host club Udinese. He must have been the only person involved in the Championship who didn't, but when he found out he didn't like it one little bit.

"They've got some world class players that they've borrowed from almost one club," he blasted. "It seems pretty ludicrous to me."

He went on: "We're only allowed to borrow two players from the same team in this country. Unlimited abroad? That gives a licence to people to buy English clubs, chuck all their players over here and have a reserve team.

"What if Barcelona wanted to buy us and play their 'B' team for us? We've got to sort this out. No arguing, what their manager is doing and how they're doing it is fantastic. If there's a loophole, they've found it  and some of those players are as good as any I've seen in the world.

"But I can't believe there's such a massive loophole, and my question is - where are those English players going to come from?"

Both clubs were nicely placed in the play offs ahead of the game and both sides still are after a weekend that saw none of the top six win. Cardiff could only draw at Huddersfield and Hull were beaten at Brighton.

That left Leicester and Middlesbrough and they managed to lose against teams in the bottom three. Leicester went down at Peterborough where they had the shock of a five figure crowd and Middlesbrough were beaten by Barnsley at home. It's their fifth successive defeat.

Yes, Barnsley and Peterborough both won and so did Bristol City and this had to be sweet revenge for their new manager Sean O'Driscoll who got one over Nottingham Forest, the club that sacked him on Boxing Day.

The big news at Forest is that Little Billy Davies is still there. He was appointed last week, took over this morning and latest press reports suggest there have been fall outs as yet. That must be a record both for him and the Forest chairman.

As for the bottom three, despite all winning that's where they remain but they've moved ever closer to the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Wolves.

There's been some strange goings on at Elland Road. It's only five minutes since they were taken over by GFH Capital, a Dubai based investment bank. The takeover, reported at £52 million, was completed in December but already they are fending off bids.

They have confirmed that they've rejected an offer for a majority stake understood to be from a Yorkshire based consortium. Just last week, Adam Pearson, previously of Hull and Derby, admitted to be interested in getting back into football with Leeds.

In a statement, GFH Capital said: "As can be expected with a club as fantastic as Leeds United, since our acquisition we have received several offers to invest in the club alongside us. The most recent offer was for a majority stake and has not been accepted."

What could be accepted very soon is the arrival of a new manager with Neil Warnock's position looking less and less secure.

The results over the weekend have seen us drop to ninth. Brighton are now in seventh place and just two points from the play offs. Had we won it would have been us in there and only a point behind Middlesbrough. One way or another we'll be further behind by the time we play again.

Brighton could be our next opponents. Right now we are still scheduled to play Huddersfield this Saturday but, farcically, have to await the result of their cup replay tomorrow night.

The results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, the red and yellow cards per club, the highest and lowest attendances and this week's fixtures.

The Results Friday 8th February Watford 2 Crystal Palace 2   Saturday 9th February Blackburn Rovers 1 Ipswich Town 0 Huddersfield Town 0 Cardiff City 0 Blackpool 2 Millwall 1 Middlesbrough 2 Barnsley 3 Bolton Wanderers 2 Burnley 1 Peterborough United 2 Leicester City 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Hull City 0 Sheffield Wednesday 2 Derby County 2 Bristol City 2 Nottingham Forest 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Leeds United 2 Charlton Athletic 1 Birmingham City 1  

 

The Stats Biggest Win Bristol City 2-0 v Nottingham Forest (home) Total Goals Scored 32 (19 home - 13 away)

Player Scoring Most Goals

no player scored more than one goal Highest Attendance 25,765 - Sheffield Wednesday v Derby County Lowest Attendance 11,070 - Peterborough United v Leicester City Total Yellow Cards 34 Total Red Cards 0 Most Cards in a Game Watford v Crystal Palace (7Y) Ref: Michael Naylor

 

Leading Goalscorers (League Only) 24 Glenn Murray (Crystal Palace) - includes 7 penalties 21 Charlie Austin (Burnley) - includes 3 penaltiesJordan Rhodes (Blackburn Rovers) - includes 2 penalties, 2 with Huddersfield Town 19 Matej Vydra (Watford) - includes 2 penalties 17 Tom Ince (Blackpool) - includes 3 penalties 16 Chris Wood (Leicester City) - 11 with Millwall 15 Luciano Becchio (Leeds United) - includes 4 penalties 14 David Nugent (Leicester City) - includes 1 penalty 13 Marlon King (Birmingham City) - includes 3 penalties 12 Troy Deeney (Watford) - includes 2 penalties 11 Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion) - includes 2 penalties 10 DJ Campbell (Blackburn Rovers) - 10 with Ipswich TownSteven Davies (Bristol City) - includes 2 penaltiesSylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) - includes 2 penaltiesScott McDonald (Middlesbrough)Billy Sharp (Nottingham Forest) - includes 3 penalties 9 Sam Baldock (Bristol City) - includes 4 penaltiesCraig Davies (Bolton Wanderers) - includes 2 penalties, 8 with Barnsley 8 Almen Abdi (Watford) - includes 2 penaltiesSone Aluko (Hull City)Lukas Jutkiewicz (Middlesbrough)Theo Robinson (Derby County)Jamie Ward (Derby County) - includes 3 penalties

 

Hat Tricks  Date Player & Game 01/09/12 3: Pete Whittingham - CARDIFF CITY v Wolverhampton Wanderers 15/09/12 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Peterborough United 22/09/12 3: Glenn Murray - CRYSTAL PALACE v Cardiff City 22/09/12 4: Craig Davies - Birmingham City v BARNSLEY 23/09/12 3: David Nugent - LEICESTER CITY v Hull City 29/09/12 3: Emile Sinclair - Hull City v PETERBOROUGH UNITED 02/10/12 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Sheffield Wednesday 23/10/12 3: Marlon King - Millwall v BIRMINGHAM CITY 06/11/12 3: Glenn Murray - CRYSTAL PALACE v Ipswich Town 17/11/12 3: Jordan Rhodes - Peterborough United v BLACKBURN ROVERS 12/01/13 3: Chris Wood - Bristol City v LEICESTER CITY

 

Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) Club Y R Y R Club Y R Y R   League   Total   League  Total  Barnsley 40 1 47 2 Huddersfield Town 56 4 64 4 Birmingham City 45 3 49 3 Hull City 34 1 37 2 Blackburn Rovers 41 0 46 0 Ipswich Town 36 0 38 0 Blackpool 38 1 40 1 Leeds United 47 2 57 2 Bolton Wanderers 57 1 61 1 Leicester City 32 1 34 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 44 2 49 2 Middlesbrough 38 0 48 0 Bristol City 39 0 42 0 Millwall 57 2 62 2 Burnley 56 2 64 3 Nottingham Forest 48 4 48 5 Cardiff City 54 2 57 2 Peterborough United 43 1 46 1 Charlton Athletic 44 1 45 2 Sheffield Wednesday 54 1 60 1 Crystal Palace 42 2 53 2 Watford 56 4 59 4 Derby County 39 1 40 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 39 2 43 2

 

Highest and Lowest Attendances Highest Lowest Att Fixture Att Fixture 33,010 Derby County v Nottingham Forest (19/01) 5,435 Peterborough United v Bristol City (18/09) 28,707 Nottingham Forest v Derby County (30/09) 5,633 Peterborough United v Blackpool (01/12) 28,595 Wolverhampton W v Ipswich Town (29/12) 5,997 Peterborough Utd v Blackburn Rovers (17/11) 28,582 Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds United (19/10) 6,188 Peterborough United v Millwall (21/08) 28,229 Middlesbrough v Sheffield Wednesday (09/11) 6,214 Peterborough United v Hull City (19/01) 27,437 Derby County v Sheffield Wednesday (18/08) 6,348 Peterborough Utd v Huddersfield Town(23/10) 26,727 Brighton & Hove Albion v Watford (29/12) 6,600 Peterborough Utd v Bolton Wand (23/12) 26,684 Brighton & HA v Nottingham Forest (15/12) 6,612 Peterborough Utd v Middlesbrough (08/12) 26,670 Nottingham Forest v Leeds United (26/12) 6,648 Peterborough Utd v Burnley (02/02) 26,598 Sheffield Wed v Bolton Wanderers (22/09) 7,339 Peterborough Utd v Barnsley (01/01)

 

The Next Fixtures Tuesday 12th February Brighton & Hove Albion v Blackburn Rovers Middlesbrough v Leeds United Hull City v Derby County   Saturday 16th February Birmingham City v Watford Derby County v Wolverhampton Wanderers Burnley v Huddersfield Town (prov) Hull City v Charlton Athletic Cardiff City v Bristol City Ipswich Town v Blackpool Crystal Palace v Middlesbrough Nottingham Forest v Bolton Wanderers

Source: Clarets Mad

Source: FOOTYMAD