Barnsley 0 Norwich City 0

Attendance 12,324

The future of Brian Howard will be decided this week after the Barnsley midfield player was omitted from the squad that drew with Norwich City. Jon Macken missed a penalty in the first half for Barnsley, but the talking point was the absence of Howard.

Simon Davey, the Barnsley manager, refused to be drawn on Howard, who has been linked with a loan to Sheffield United, saying: “The club will make a statement on Monday.” On the match, Davey said: “Our first-half performance was fantastic, we should have gone in three or four up. The players were superb.” Glenn Roeder, the Norwich manger, who admitted that his side were not at their best, said: “If Barnsley play like that, I’m sure they’ll get away from the bottom of the table.”

Blackpool 1 Coventry City 1

Attendance 8,462

After his team were held to a draw by Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, Chris Coleman, the Coventry City manager, hopes that his players will hit the goal trail soon. A fine strike from Freddy Eastwood, the Coventry forward, in the 69th minute cancelled out the opener for the home side from Ben Burgess, but Coleman believed his side should have scored more.

“What we are not doing is getting any luck in front of goal,” Coleman said. “Blackpool got bodies in the way when it counted and the ball did not fall for us. However, Blackpool work hard – you have to if you are going to beat Birmingham at St Andrew’s [as Blackpool did the previous weekend] – so I’m more than happy with the outcome.” Simon Grayson, the Blackpool manager, said: “I think the draw was about right. It was a fair reflection of the game.”

Burnley 3 Preston North End 1

Attendance 16,276

Joey Gudjonsson, the Iceland and Burnley midfield player, was told to continue shooting by Owen Coyle, his manager, after scoring a stunning goal in the victory over Preston North End at Turf Moor. Gudjonsson’s 30-yard strike equalised Barry Nicholson’s opener for Preston, before goals from Steve Caldwell and Chris Eagles completed a comfortable win for the hosts.

“It was a very special goal, but Joey is capable of doing that,” Coyle said. “I am telling him on a daily basis to do that because if he can catch it right, then it’s unstoppable. All the players showed belief, hunger and desire and it’s great credit to them because they delivered when they crossed that white line.” Alan Irvine, the Preston manager, is confident his that side will bounce back from this defeat. “Things change very quickly in football and we can turn things around,” he said.

Cardiff City 1 Birmingham City 2

Attendance 18,304

Goals from James McFadden and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie ensured Birmingham City recorded a valuable victory over Cardiff City at Ninian Park. But Alex McLeish, the Birmingham manager, was not entirely happy and feels there is much more to come from his promotion-chasing side. “We defended well against some real pressure and to score twice from only three shots on goal was a bonus,” he said. “But I’d really prefer us to go at teams rather than sit back and soak up the pressure.”

Dave Jones, the Cardiff manager, believed that his side were made to pay for their lack of concentration in defending. “We fell asleep to give them their early goal and the same thing happened for their second,” he said. “It’s frustrating for us but after keeping so many clean sheets we switched off twice and it was very costly.”

Charlton Athletic 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2

Attendance 20,278

Alan Pardew, the Charlton Athletic manager, is ready to wield the axe following his side’s disappointing defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at The Valley. Luke Varney opened the scoring for Charlton, but strikes from Wade Small and Marcus Tudgay secured the victory for Wednesday. “It was a disappointing result for us,” Pardew said. “We have had a few low performances recently and I’ll have to have a look at the selection of the side because there are one or two players who are desperate to have a go now.”

Brian Laws, the Wednesday manager, is confident that his side can build on the result, but admitted that they were fortunate to come away with all three points. “Charlton went at us early, hit the post twice and we rode our luck a bit,” Laws said. “But credit to my players, they dug in deep and all worked their socks off.”

Doncaster Rovers 0 Southampton 2

Attendance 10,867

An own goal from Matt Mills and a penalty from Andrew Surman ensured that Southampton took all three points against Doncaster Rovers and Surman could even afford to miss a second spot-kick late in the match. Jan Poortvliet, the Southampton head coach, believes that his side will take heart from the victory at the Keepmoat Stadium.

“I am very happy with the result and it will give us a lot of confidence for the next few games,” Poortvliet said. “It was a really good team performance, maybe not in the way we played football, but definitely in the way we played for each other. I asked for passion from my players and it showed.” Sean O’Driscoll, the Doncaster manager, was left to rue the chances that his side missed before Southampton’s opening goal. “If we could have got the first goal, it could have changed the game,” he said.

Ipswich Town 1 Crystal Palace 1

Attendance 19,032

Jim Magilton, the Ipswich Town manager, insists that he can deal with any criticism that comes his way after he was jeered by fans during his side’s draw with Crystal Palace at Portman Road. Magilton was taunted with cries of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ following his decision to substitute Jon Stead, the forward, but the Northern Irishman was far from worried. “I’ve got to live with it, it’s part and parcel of the game and I certainly do know what I’m doing,” Magilton said. “I can’t stop it and they’re welcome to air their views, but I’m a big enough person to deal with it.”

Stead had earlier opened the scoring for Ipswich, but Victor Moses levelled to leave Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, delighted. “We needed a performance like that and it took a good team to make us play,” he said. “It was as good as we’ve produced this season.”

Plymouth Argyle 1 Nottingham Forest 0

Attendance 12,594

Plymouth Argyle recorded their first home victory of the season against Nottingham Forest to leave Paul Sturrock, their manager, delighted. Rory Fallon grabbed the only goal of the game at Home Park, and Sturrock admitted the result came as a huge relief. “It was far from a classic but we got the result we wanted,” he said. “We were nervy because we wanted our first win and they were looking for their first away points. We are not the prettiest team to watch in the world, but we can be effective and we have shown that again.”

Colin Calderwood, the Forest manager, admitted that he was baffled by Fallon’s goal, after the ball bounced in off the striker’s left shin. “It was a terribly bizarre goal that changed the result of a bitty game which was untidy from start to finish,” he said. “It was just dull if I am honest and we did not do things well enough.”

Reading 4 Swansea City 0

Attendance 20,093

Stephen Hunt, the Reading midfield player, inspired his side’s comfortable victory over Swansea City at the Madejski Stadium and was hailed by Steve Coppell, his manager. The Ireland player was on the scoresheet alongside brother Noel, and a brace from Kevin Doyle heaped further misery on the Welsh side. “Stephen was fantastic, he has no respect for his opponents,” Coppell said. “It just doesn’t matter who he is up against. He plays flat out in an old-fashioned way and the fans love that. It was a good win for us and obviously we are very pleased with the home form at the moment. ”

Roberto MartÍnez, the Swansea manager, is adamant that his side will respond in the correct manner. “We will learn a lesson because we know what we need to improve on,” he said. “Today we created our own problems and our concentration levels were not good enough.”

Sheffield United 2 Watford 1

Attendance 24,427

James Beattie grabbed his first goal of the season to lead Sheffield United to victory over Watford at Bramall Lane, and Sam Ellis, the United assistant manager, believes that the former England striker will soon be back to his best. John-Joe O’Toole had levelled for the visiting side after Gary Speed’s first-minute goal, but Beattie’s header gave United the points. “James has been unlucky in that [Darius] Henderson got injured and he probably came back too soon,” Ellis said. “You can see his touch isn’t quite there yet, but the goal will do him the world of good because he was back to his cocky self again after the game.”

Adrian Boothroyd, the Watford manager, was unhappy with his side and made it clear that they must improve. “We’ve got to make sure we take responsibility because that performance wasn’t good enough for us,” he said.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Bristol City 0

Attendance 24,324

Mick McCarthy, the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, was delighted with his side’s workrate after they maintained their impressive start to the season with victory over Bristol City at Molineux. Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake were on target for the league leaders as Wolves claimed their seventh win from eight games this campaign. “It has been a really pleasing start. The best I have ever had,” McCarthy said. “I demand hard work from the players. The ones who don’t put it in don’t play.”

The visiting side fell away towards the end of the game and were fortunate not to lose by a greater margin. Gary Johnson, the City manager, admitted that Wolves were worthy winners, but he is confident that the result won’t damage his side’s belief. “We’re humble enough to give Wolves credit, but we are disappointed rather than disheartened,” he said.