e-Football Championship Review 26/27 October

Article by Championship Correspondent Jonathan Smith

Middlesbrough began life without Tony Mowbray with a 4-0 thumping of Doncaster Rovers at the Riverside on Friday night. An Albert Adomah double put Boro 2-0 up at the break before Kei Kamara, a former Norwich City loanee, made it three and Daniel Ayala, making his debut on loan from Norwich, added a fourth. It was only Middlesbrough’s second league win in their last ten matches and leaves them on fifteen points for the season so far. Doncaster have now conceded a combined eight goals in their last two league matches and will be looking to rediscover the form that saw them record 1-0 victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester City earlier this season.

Saturday’s game of the day saw the Championship’s top two, Burnley and QPR, go head-to-head at Turf Moor. Two second half strikes from Danny Ings secured all three points for the host and condemned QPR to their first defeat in the league this season. Ings first goal came following some good build-up play involving strike partner Sam Vokes. The finish past England ‘keeper Rob Green was equally as impressive. Ings’ second goal came from the penalty spot after Joey Barton’s clumsy challenge in the box.

Leicester City replaced QPR in second place with a 2-1 win at home against Championship new boys Bournemouth. David Nugent’s finish put City one up before a fantastic strike from Marc Pugh drew the visitors level. A good run by substitute Chris Wood lead to Jamie Vardy being put through on goal. The former Fleetwood forward kept his cool to round the ‘keeper and give the Foxes yet another league win at the King Power Stadium. Leicester are still unbeaten at home and have managed seven consecutive wins following their 0-0 draw against Leeds.

At the other end of the Championship table, Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday battled out a 1-1 draw at Oakwell. Marcus Pedersen gave the Tykes a 1-0 lead only to see it slip away as Hull loanee Matty Fryatt grabbed a share of the spoils. It was meant to be Fryatt’s last match for Wednesday but Hull have now agreed to extend his loan until the end of November. The Owls are going to need his goals to drag them off the foot of the table and help them claim a first win of the season. Barnsley will be looking to keep things tight at the back in coming weeks having conceded thirty goals already this season; officially the leakiest defence in the Championship so far. Either way, it’s not looking too good for these two Yorkshire clubs with both of them occupying the last two places in the division.

Nottingham Forest suffered a shock 3-1 defeat away to Yeovil. The home side hadn’t won a league game since their opening day victory at Millwall but were 2-0 up within forty minutes thanks to Ed Upson’s brace. Nathaniel Chalobah, on loan from Chelsea, managed to scramble home a goal for Forest before half time but Byron Webster headed Yeovil’s third of the day a minute later to leave the Reds with a second half mountain to climb. Billy Davies’ men failed to claw themselves back into the game and now find themselves hanging onto a play-off place by the skin of their teeth. The Glovers stay in the bottom three but within striking distance of Bolton, Charlton, Birmingham and Doncaster.

Blackpool lead twice against Blackburn but failed to hold onto all three points. Thomas Ince continued his fine form with a thirteenth minute penalty before Jordan Rhodes equalised from the spot eight minutes later. Blackpool lead at the break thanks to Newcastle loanee Dan Gosling. Both sides ended up with ten men as Rovers substitute DJ Campbell and Blackpool full back Jack Robinson saw red. The drama didn’t end there as another substitute, Steve Davies, managed to score a last minute own goal to gift Blackburn a point. Blackpool remain in the top six despite only winning one of their last seven league matches.

Reading are another team currently occupying a top six position but found it difficult to break down Millwall at the weekend. Defender Sean Morrison headed Nigel Adkins’ troops into an early lead but Reading failed to add a second goal. They were punished in the last minute when Millwall were awarded a penalty and Liam Trotter put it away. It was Millwall’s second draw against a top six team in succession following on from their home point against QPR.

Two teams who find themselves in the wrong half of the table are Bolton and Ipswich. Neither side could muster a goal in the first half but Bolton broke the deadlock through Medo Kamara. Bolton have found wins hard to come by this season and any hope of sending the Reebok faithful home happy were dashed as David McGoldrick grabbed a point for the visitors. It was Bolton’s fifth draw in seven league matches and Ipswich’s third in four so maybe we shouldn’t be too shocked by this result!

Another 1-1 draw was played out at Pride Park as Lee Clark’s Birmingham grabbed a point. Jamie Ward had given the Rams a first half lead but Lee Novak ruined the party with his reply after 66 minutes. Derby are unbeaten since Steve McClaren took over from Nigel Clough. His two wins and two draws have seen Derby rise to just outside the play-off positions. Birmingham continue to scrap away at the bottom of the table.

The final fixture from Saturday was another Yorkshire derby with Huddersfield playing host to Leeds United. Leeds got off to a flying start through Matt Smith only for Danny Ward to peg them back with ten minutes on the clock. The game came to life after the hour mark with the Terriers taking a 2-1 lead thanks to a Tom Lees own goal. Leeds’ new loan signing, Dexter Blackstock, made his mark with an equaliser but it was Huddersfield who had the final say as Jon Stead scored the winner; his first since re-joining for a second spell with the club.

There was a chance to see Championship football on a Sunday at the Valley. Charlton and Wigan played out a 0-0 draw in front of a crowd of 23,600. Charlton had their chances but were kept out by Lee Nicholls on his league debut for the Latics. Wigan, who continue to compete in Europe, could find promotion a tough ask this season whereas Charlton will be more than happy if they can retain their Championship status for another year.

The final match of the Championship weekend saw two of last season’s play-off participants, Brighton and Watford, play out a 1-1 draw. The Hornets took an early lead with Sean Murray finding the back of the net and thought they’d made it 2-0 when Fernando Forestieri’s shot crossed the line but wasn’t given by the referee, Keith Hill. Brighton made the most of their reprieve and earned a point thanks to Andrew Crofts second half effort. Watford find themselves in seventh but Brighton are still in the bottom half as they attempt to recreate the success that they achieved under Gus Poyet’s stewardship.

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