Barnsley 0 Sheffield Wed 0
Brian Laws, the Sheffield Wednesday manager, said that the conditions played a
big part as his team, who are battling relegation, fought out a goalless
draw against ten-man Barnsley. “The biggest element today was the wind, he
said. “It did become a bit of a scrap. It’s a local derby and a lot of pride
was shown. But we’ve now got three clean sheets on the bounce. That tells us
we are going in the right direction. They were very solid.”
Barnsley were reduced to ten men when Rob Kozluk was sent off for his second
booking after his lunge had caught Marcus Tudgay. Simon Davey, the Barnsley
manager, said: “For the last two games the wind has played a major factor.
The ball gets caught in the air, drops and runs away. We have got to start
picking up points against Blackpool [tomorrow].”
Bristol City 2 Hull 1
Gary Johnson, the Bristol City manager, described Jamie McCombe’s winning goal
against Hull as “a sublime moment”. McCombe’s spectacular bicycle kick came
less than a minute into the second half after Hull had looked the better
team. “I can’t recall ever seeing a goal like that from a centre back
before,” Johnson said. “I can only call it a sublime moment, which no one
will forget for a long time. We have believed in ourselves from day one and
nothing has changed.”
Dele Adebola volleyed City ahead, but Hull equalised when Ian Ashbee’s
cut-back appeared to go in off Liam Fontaine. Phil Brown, the Hull manager,
was left frustrated and disappointed. “We could easily have come away with
three points, let alone one, but we didn’t have that bit of luck where it
mattered,” he said.
Goalscorers: Bristol City: Adebola 14, McCombe 46 Hull City:
Fontaine 45 (og)
Burnley 2 Watford 2
Adrian Boothroyd, the Watford manager, bemoaned his team’s inability to hold
on to a lead after they twice squandered a winning position against Burnley.
Watford went ahead through a header by Darius Henderson before Robbie Blake
equalised with 15 minutes to go. Jordan Stewart’s 85th-minute goal put
Watford ahead, but Blake levelled for the home team with two minutes left.
Boothroyd said: “Before the game, I would have settled for a point, but to
go ahead twice, I would expect us to win the game. We shot ourselves in the
foot twice.”
Owen Coyle, the Burnley manager, said: “I felt we were outstanding. We got the
ball down and passed it, and offered enough to win the game. The players
have to stand up and be counted, and they bounced back to get the
equaliser.”
Goalscorers: Burnley: Blake 75, 88 Watford: Henderson 23,
Stewart 85
Cardiff 0 Leicester 1
Dave Jones, the Cardiff City manager, was keen to put this home defeat by
Leicester City behind him after an own goal by Darren Purse handed the
visiting team victory. A clearance by Paul Henderson, the Leicester
goalkeeper, was put into his own net by Purse in the 26th minute. “It was a
poor goal to give away and Darren made the wrong decision,” Jones said. “You
get games like this sometimes, but we must keep trying to work our way out
of it.”
Ian Holloway, the Leicester manager, was delighted with the result. “I asked
my players before the game to be brave, stand up and be counted and I doubt
whether you will find a better away performance than that,” he said. “We
have restricted a very good passing side to few goal attempts and fully
deserved our victory.”
Goalscorer: Leicester: Purse 27 (og)
Colchester 0 Wolves 1
Mick McCarthy, the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, praised Geraint Williams,
his Colchester United counterpart, after seeing his side plunge their
opponents deeper into the relegation mire. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s strike gave
Wolves the win, but McCarthy feels that Williams is the best man for the job
at Colchester. “Geraint has done a magnificent job,” McCarthy said. “Every
team in the Championship is difficult – there are no easy games in this
division. The games are ebbing away now and it’s an important three points
for us.”
Williams was satisfied with the attitude of his team. “They [Wolves]
clinically took their chance and we didn’t take ours,” he said. “I felt we
were brave and we tried to be positive – we have players giving 100 per cent
for the shirt.”
Goalscorer: Wolves: Ebanks-Blake 30
Norwich 1 Blackpool 2
Simon Grayson, the Blackpool manager, refused to talk up his team’s chances of
making the play-offs despite a victory that ended a four-month unbeaten home
record for Norwich City. Two goals by Stephen McPhee – the first a header –
clinched the win, with Jamie Cureton’s penalty purely a consolation. But
Grayson said: “We are still looking over our shoulders. At the start of the
season our target was to try to stay in this league and that remains the
case. Thanks to this result we are now only five points away from our safety
target.”
Glenn Roeder, the Norwich manager, said: “Over the course of the 90 minutes,
and especially in the first half, we just didn’t play well enough. This was
our first league defeat here in ten games and I’m not going to be too
critical.” Cureton 65 (pen)
Goalscorers: Norwich: Cureton 65 (pen) Blackpool: McPhee 15, 39
Preston 0 Crystal Palace 1
Alan Irvine, the Preston manager, gave no excuses for his side’s below-par
display that left them one point above the relegation zone. “It was a poor
performance,” he said. “I’m sure the Stoke game [in midweek] took a lot out
of them, mentally and physically, but I don’t really want to make any
excuses. Palace deserved to win. I don’t think we looked threatening enough.
We looked a bit more threatening in the second half.”
Clinton Morrison grabbed the winner for the visiting team after 76 minutes.
Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, said: “In fairness to Preston, I think
they took a lot out of their sails with the Stoke game. A team like Crystal
Palace come up and we have been poor for a few games. We made some changes
and they caught us at a bad time because we were fresh.”
Goalscorer: Crystal Palace: Morrison 76
Scunthorpe 2 Coventry 1
Chris Coleman, the Coventry City manager, told his players that they must
improve after this defeat by Scunthorpe United dragged them deeper into
relegation trouble. Jack Cork, a midfield player on loan from Chelsea,
struck the winner to lift Scunthorpe off the foot of the table, prompting
Coleman to say: “The first half was OK, but the second was unacceptable. If
we are going to stay out of trouble, we are going to have to do better than
this.”
Nigel Adkins, the Scunthorpe manager, was delighted with the result, saying:
“Winning games is all that is important at this stage of the season. We have
always had a belief that we can get out of trouble and survive. There might
have been an element of fortune about Jack Cork’s winner, but he has been
tremendous for us this season.”
Goalscorers: Scunthorpe: Paterson 15, Cork 66 Coventry: Thornton
21 (pen)
Sheffield Utd 0 Charlton 2
Alan Pardew, the Charlton manager, let his players take the plaudits after
they ended their winless away run with this victory over Sheffield United.
Charlton recorded their win thanks to goals from Chris Iwelumo and Sam
Sodje, and Pardew said: “The players can take all the credit. They could
have felt sorry for themselves after Blackpool [last week, when they lost
5-3], but they did the job and that’s all I could ask of them.”
Iwelumo put the visiting team en route to victory with his strike on the brink
of half-time. United failed to produce much of a response and were killed
off by Sodje’s late header. Kevin Blackwell, the United manager, launched an
attack on his players’ performance, saying: “It was insipid and it wasn’t
good enough. That isn’t the Sheffield United I know. You need courage and we
didn’t have any.”
Goalscorers: Charlton: Iwelumo 45, Sodje 82
Southampton 1 Ipswich 1
Nigel Pearson, the new Southampton manager, was lost for words after his team
were held to a draw by Ipswich. Pearson yelled himself so hoarse that he had
lost his voice by full-time. David Norris’s first goal for Ipswich denied
Pearson a maiden victory when he cancelled out Stern John’s second-half
strike. Jason Dodd, the Southampton first-team coach, said: “We can’t fault
any of the players. The manager has been working on a game plan all week and
everyone played how he wanted them to play. We were a lot more solid and
together and we probably had the better chances.”
Jim Magilton, the Ipswich manager, thought that his team were good value for a
draw. “We showed some resilience to come back from 1-0 down, whereas earlier
in the season we might have gone under,” he said.
Goalscorer: Southampton: John 51 Ipswich: Norris 56
West Brom 3 Plymouth 0
Tony Mowbray warned West Bromwich Albion’s rivals that his team are still
fighting for promotion after this convincing win. He believes that his team
have the quality to go up. “We have dropped away from the top two, but there
is a real determination to make sure that everyone in the division knows
that we are still fighting for promotion,” the manager said. “Last week we
ended up losing to Hull because we had to go looking for a win, but today we
were pragmatic and professional.”
Paul Sturrock, the Plymouth Argyle manager, said: “The second goal was zany to
say the least and the first was a comedy of errors. The confidence oozed
into their team when they got the goal. You saw confident, quality players
emerge. I am disappointed that my players put their heads down when we went
2-0 down.”
Goalscorers: West Brom: Gera 45, Miller 59, Bednar 67
