Championship. Results, Reviews and Table for 2008/9

[Sojourner]

Marcus Tudgay claimed a double and Francis Jeffers scored his first goal in more than a year as Sheffield Wednesday claimed a crushing 4-1 victory over Charlton who are seemingly headed for relegation.
On-loan Darren Potter put the Owls ahead on his debut with a long-range shot with Tudgay doubling the lead with a close-range header in the 39th minute.
Jeffers then struck, Matthew Spring pulled one back for the Addicks four minutes from time but Tudgay restored the three-goal advantage with a last-minute penalty in a convincing triumph.

What were you telling me about Wednesday at the start of the season again John?

[johntheclaret]

Dunno Sojo, but I bet it is something that now I'll have to eat my words

[mighty_tiger_79]

Birmingham 1 derby 0

thought id better let all the derby fans know about the latest score

[johntheclaret]

Mid week Jan 27th & 28th

Results

Wednesday 28th January 2009
Coventry C 0-2 Cardiff C

Tuesday 27th January 2009
Barnsley 1-2 Ipswich T
Birmingham 1-0 Derby Co
Blackpool 0-3 QPR
Charlton A 1-0 Crystal P
Norwich C 2-2 Southamptn
Nottm For 2-1 Sheff Wed
Plymouth A 0-2 Bristol C
Reading 1-0 Wolves
Sheff Utd 0-1 Doncaster
Swansea C 4-1 Preston NE
Watford 3-0 Burnley 5 straight league losses.

Round Up

Reading moved to within two points of leaders Wolves with a 1-0 victory at the Madejski Stadium.
Neil Collins' disastrous own goal after just two minutes proved to be enough for Reading.
Collins' miserable evening was compounded when he was sent off in the final minute.

Birmingham boosted their promotion hopes with a narrow 1-0 win over Derby at St Andrews.
Veteran midfielder Lee Carlsley headed the only goal of the game to leave Clough still looking for his first win as Derby boss.

Charlton secured their first win in 18 games with a priceless 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at The Valley.
Matt Spring netted the winner for Charlton after 14 minutes to give Phil Parkinson his first league win as Addicks boss.

Southampton came from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Norwich in Mark Wotte's first game in charge.
Norwich looked to be heading for all three points after two goals in two minutes from Mark Fotheringham (40) and Wes Hoolahan (42) put them in control, but second-half goals from Kayne McLaggon - his first senior goal - and Marek Saganowski grabbed the visitors a vital point.

Doncaster took the spoils in the Yorkshire derby against Sheffield United with a 1-0 win at Bramall Lane.
James O'Connor scored the only goal of the game five minutes after the break to give Sean O'Driscoll's side a memorable win.

Watford eased their relegation worries with a 3-0 win over Burnley at Vicarage Road
Jobi McAnuff fired Watford in front after just two minutes and two late goals from Tamas Priskin (78, 90) gave the home side the win.

Nottingham Forest came from behind to beat ten-man Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at the City Ground.
Jermaine Johnson gave Wednesday the lead on 25 minutes, but Nathan Tyson drew Forest level on 34 minutes and things got worse for the visitors five minutes before the break when Francis Jeffers was sent off for violent conduct.
Forest made their numerical advantage count 15 minutes from time when Luke Chambers netted his first goal of the season.

FA Cup heroes Swansea maintained their fine form with a 4-1 over Preston at the Liberty Stadium.
Goals from Jordi Gomez (2), Jason Scotland (29), Guillem Bauza (69) and Alan Tate (87) were enough to give Roberto Martinez's men the spoils with Chris Brown grabbing a late consolation for Preston.

Queens Park Rangers boosted their play-off hopes with a 3-0 success at Blackpool.
Heidar Helguson was the hero for Rangers with two goals, with his second coming from the penalty spot and Hogan Ephraim added a third in the final minute.

Ipswich took all three points from their trip to Oakwell with a 2-1 win over Barnsley.
Two goals in two minutes from Jon Stead put Ipswich in control and although Daniel Bogdanovic (47) marked his debut with a goal Ipswich held on for the victory.

Bristol City climbed up to 12th spot with a 2-0 win at Plymouth.
Michael McIndoe set City on their way with the opener just past the hour and Liam Fontaine sealed the win four minutes from time.

Jay Bothroyd silenced the Coventry boo-boys with a menacing display against his former club as Championship promotion hopefuls Cardiff stretched their unbeaten league run to 10 matches at the Ricoh Arena.
Bothroyd, who spent three years with the Sky Blues before leaving to join Italian outfit Perugia on a free transfer in July 2003, had his every touch roundly jeered by the home supporters.
But the former Arsenal youngster had the last laugh when he lashed the ball home from close range after 33 minutes after Keiren Westwood had saved his initial far-post header
McCormack had two chances to extend Cardiff's lead in first-half injury-time but Westwood got down well to save before the striker mishit the second chance wide from 10 yards.
The Scot made amends after the break though when he latched on to Gavin Rae's pass and slid the ball under Westwood to put the game beyond Coventry with his 16th goal of the season.

Table

Teams P GD PTS
1 Wolves 29 21 59
2 Reading 29 32 57
-----------------------
3 Birmingham 29 10 55
4 Cardiff 28 13 48
5 SheffUtd 29 14 47
6 Preston 29 4 47
-----------------------
7 QPR 29 4 45
8 Swansea 29 10 44
9 Burnley 29 -1 43
10 Ipswich 29 11 42
11 CPalace 28 6 40
12 Bristol C 28 0 38
13 SheffWed 29 -10 38
14 Coventry 29 -3 37
15 Blackpool 29 -9 34
16 Plymouth 28 -6 33
17 Nott'm Forest 29 -7 33
18 Barnsley 29 -10 32
19 Norwich 29 -7 30
20 Watford 29 -9 30
21 Doncaster 28 -12 30
---------------------------
22 Derby 28 -12 29
23 Southampton 29 -18 27
24 Charlton 29 -21 22

[johntheclaret]

Fri 30th Jan

Doncaster 1 - 1 Norwich

Jonathan Grounds headed a second-half equaliser to snatch a 1-1 draw for Norwich in their Championship clash at Doncaster tonight.
In the 73rd minute Matt Mills sidefooted over after getting free round the back from a free-kick, while Heffernan stabbed the ball wide from the increasingly-influential Coppinger's pull back.

But for all Doncaster's late pressure they could not find a winner as their run of victories came to an end.

[johntheclaret]

Steel City derby on now.

Half time Sheff U 1 - 2 Sheff W.

sounds like a great game going on in front of a packed Bramall Lane. Suprised this one isn't on TV. Sheff W 1 - o after 1 min. Utd equalised after 5 mins. Wed 2 - 1 at half time.

[johntheclaret]

FT Sheff U 1 - 2 Sheff W

Other HT's

Brum 1 - 1 Clarets
Pool 1 - 1 Donny
Reading 0 - 0 PNE

[johntheclaret]

Plymouth 0 - 2 Rams
Forest 1 - 0 QPR

[johntheclaret]

Argyle 0 - 3 Rams. hulse 2 in 5 mins
Pool 1 - 2 Donny. Hird 54 after good work from ex claret Spicer

late goal from QPT HT forest 1 - 1 QPR

pool 2 -2 Donny DJ campbell within a minute

QRP 2 - 1 up within 3 mins Alberti scores both

[johntheclaret]

Coventy 1 - 0 Wolves

[johntheclaret]

Donny 3 - 2 up now. sounds like a pretty good game at Bloomfield Road

Swans 1 - 0 up against the Tractor boys

[johntheclaret]

Forest 2 - 2 QPR.

[johntheclaret]

Coventry 1 - 1 Wolves
Swans 2 - 0 Ipswich Scotland gets his 2nd. Swansea are a dark horse for the play off's imo.

Blackpool down to 10 men

[johntheclaret]

Great come back from Coventry. 2 - 1.

How many times havde Wolves fallen away to nothing at the end of the season ?

[johntheclaret]

Sylvan Ebanks Blake has just missed a penalty in the 92nd minute. All over at the Ricoh, Coventry 2 - 1 wolves

[Dirko]

Good win by the Rams.

Staring to play some decent Football. Hopefully the form continues and we kick clear of the relegation zone
and smack Man U one in the FA

[johntheclaret]

Watched the Swnasea v ipswich game this morning. Apparently it is 40 odd years since the Swnas have beaten ipswich and to be fair they deserved the win but a counrty mile.

Having just signed Nathan Dyer (ex Claret loanee) from Soton, and Jordo Gomez on loan, they look a pretty good outfit. Fulham are up next at the Liberty Staduim and Swansea might be worth a little flutter next week, given the cottagers abysmal away form.

the talking point was Ipswich's Milnes disgraceful and deliberate elbow that went unpunished by the ref who was stood only about 10 yards away. How he failed to see it is beyond me, and is just another example of the poor standard of refereeing in the leagues these days. all it did was to incense the Swansea players one of whom decided to take tha law into his own hands and ended up getting booked himself.

If I was Swansea, I would be asking the FA to review the incident, as there is no place in football for that kind of shenanigans.

I am not a Swans fan particularly, but after that I was glad to see them shove it up Ipswich.

Watched the Derby game too. plymouth are hopeless and it is easy to see why they have not won in 8 games, but Cloughie seems to have got Derby going now they looked good value for their win. it's probably too late this year for them (??), but they could be worth a punt for the play off's next year.

[johntheclaret]

Sat 7th Feb

Results

Coventry 2 Wolves 1
Reading 0 Preston 0
Birmingham 1 Burnley 1
Sheff Utd 1 Sheff Wed 2
Nottm Forest 2 QPR 2
Swansea 3 Ipswich 0
Norwich 1 Bristol City 2
Blackpool 2 Doncaster 3
Plymouth 0 Derby 3

Round Up

Sylvain Ebanks-Blake missed a last-minute penalty as Wolves lost 2-1 at Coventry and had their lead at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship cut to four points.
Michael Doyle reacted quickest when Clinton Morrison hit the post 25 minutes in to tap into an empty net to put Coventry ahead.
Sam Vokes headed Wolves level before Leon McKenzie latched on to Jordan Henderson's through ball to put Coventry ahead.
Ebanks-Blake had the chance to grab a point at the death but Keiren Westwood saved the striker's spot kick to ensure a miserable 50th birthday for Wolves manager Mick McCarthy.

Reading made up only one point on Wolves as they failed to break down a resilient Preston at the Madejski Stadium.

Burnley followed up their FA Cup win over West Brom by denying their midlands rivals Birmingham a chance to climb the table with a 1-1 draw at St Andrews'.
The Clarets broke the deadlock after three minutes when Martin Paterson tapped in Robbie Blake's cross.
Kevin Phillips took advantage of an error by Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen to level and, despite second-half pressure, the Blues had to settle for a draw which keeps them two points behind Reading and six behind Wolves.

Brian Laws became the first man to lead Sheffield Wednesday to back-to-back Steel City derby wins in 95 years as he saw his side overcome Sheffield United 2-1 at Bramall Lane.
Tommy Spurr put the Owls ahead in the first minute only for the Blades to level through a debut goal for Arturo Lupoli soon after.
Marcus Tudgay then hit the 25-yard winner on the half hour to dent United's play-off hopes and secure the bragging rights for Wednesday.

Doncaster's survival hopes were boosted at Bloomfield Road where they beat Blackpool 3-2.
David Vaughan put Blackpool ahead after 15 minutes before Brian Stock's seventh of the season levelled the scores.
Blackpool striker DJ Campbell then cancelled out Sam Hird's strike before James Coppinger gave Rovers the win after Charlie Adam was sent off for the home side for an off-the-ball incident.

Bradley Orr's penalty gave Bristol City a 2-1 win over Norwich at Carrow Road.
Cole Skuse handed the away side the lead before Jonathan Grounds levelled from Nicky Maynard's pull-back.
Norwich defender Gary Doherty was dismissed after hacking down Dele Adebola in the box just before half-time and Orr converted the penalty to seal the win.

Nottingham Forest held QPR to a 2-2 draw in an entertaining encounter at the City Ground.
Lewis McGugan scored from the spot after Matteo Alberti upended Luke Chambers to give Forest the lead.
Alberti soon atoned for his error by firing Rangers ahead with a quickfire double but Chris Cohen grabbed a valuable point for Forest after 67 minutes.

Rob Hulse scored twice as Derby continued their resurgence under Nigel Clough with a 3-0 win at Plymouth.
Gary Teale's 25-yard piledriver put the Rams ahead before Hulse scored twice in six minutes to move Derby three more points away from the relegation zone.

Jason Scotland continued his fine form in front of goal as scored either side of half-time to help Swansea to a 3-0 win over Ipswich at the Liberty Stadium.
Scotland fired the Swans ahead after three minutes before he doubled his tally 70 minutes later with a 12-yard strike. Jordi Gomez then rounded things off with a late free-kick.

The bad weather caused Crystal Palace's game at Barnsley, Southampton's game at Watford and Cardiff's fixture at Charlton to be postponed.

Table

Teams P GD PTS
1 Wolves 32 22 63
2 Reading 31 32 59
-----------------------
3 Birmingham 31 10 57
4 Cardiff 29 15 51
5 SheffUtd 32 14 51
6 Preston 32 4 50
-----------------------
7 Swansea 31 13 48
8 Bristol C 31 4 47
9 QPR 31 4 47
10 Burnley 31 0 47
11 Ipswich 31 8 43
12 SheffWed 31 -9 42
13 CPalace 29 5 40
14 Coventry 31 -3 40
15 Blackpool 31 -9 37
16 Derby 30 -8 35
17 Plymouth 31 -9 35
18 Nott'm Forest 31 -9 34
19 Doncaster 30 -11 34
20 Norwich 32 -8 32
21 Barnsley 30 -12 32
---------------------------
22 Watford 30 -11 30
23 Southampton 31 -19 28
24 Charlton 31 -23 22

[johntheclaret]

Sat 14th Feb

Results

Burnley 1 Wolves 0
Birmingham 2 Nottm Forest 0
Bristol City 2 Southampton 0
Preston 1 Norwich 0
Ipswich 1 Blackpool 1
Doncaster 1 Sheff Wed 0
Charlton 2 Plymouth 0

Round Up

Coca-Cola Championship leaders Wolves saw their automatic promotion hopes take a blow at Turf Moor as they lost 1-0 against Burnley.
A slip in form had seen Wolves' title bid slip recently and they found themselves behind early on when Chris McCann stole in at the far post to head a Wade Elliott cross past Wolves goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy replaced Sam Vokes with Chris Iwelumo in the second half but neither he nor his team-mates could breach the Clarets defence and the midlanders fell to their eighth defeat of the season.

Birmingham leapfrogged Reading into second after beating a stubborn Nottingham Forest side 2-0 at St Andrews.
Marcus Bent came close to giving Birmingham the lead after 36 minutes when his header hit the crossbar but he was on target with a neat turn and shot inside the box just after the hour to put Birmingham ahead.
Keith Fahey's miscued cross floated over Paul Smith with 15 minutes left to put the game beyond doubt and moved his side three points behind Wolves.

Preston climbed two places into fourth after earning a 1-0 win over Norwich at Deepdale thanks to Jon Parkin's fifth of the season.
Norwich had the better of the opening exchanges but went behind when Parkin picked up the ball inside the box and cut inside to fire in off a post.

Bristol City's fine form continued at Ashton Gate where they beat strugglers Southampton 2-0 thanks to strikes from Dele Adebola and Ivan Sproule.
The home side should have taken the lead in the 14th minute but Bradley Orr's weak penalty was saved by Kelvin Davis after referee Michael Oliver spotted Rudi Skacel had tugged Nicky Maynard's shirt in the box.
Orr atoned for his error soon after when his through-ball found Adebola who tapped in to give City the lead.
Sproule rounded off an injury-time City counter-attack to ensure they picked up their fifth consecutive win.

Nicky Bailey made up for missing a penalty to hit the vital goal in bottom side Charlton's 2-0 win over Plymouth at The Valley.
The match sparked into life in the 33rd minute when Therry Racon picked up a clearance from a Tom Soares corner and curled a 20-yard shot past Romain Larrieu.
The Addicks should have put the game to bed just after the break but Larrieu tipped Bailey's penalty wide after referee Trevor Kettle ruled that Luke Summerfield had handled in the box.
Bailey picked up Racon's cross before firing past Larrieu to secure the win which moves the Addicks to within three points of Southampton.

Doncaster earned the bragging rights from the South Yorkshire derby at the Keepmoat Stadium with a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
Rovers had the best of the play and earned their deserved win with the only goal just after the half-hour when Paul Heffernan headed home a James Coppinger cross.

Tommy Miller's first-half strike denied Blackpool their sixth away win of the season as they drew 1-1 with Ipswich at Portman Road.
Blackpool went ahead on the half hour when Alex Baptiste rounded off a flowing move to smash his shot past Richard Wright.
Miller latched on to a loose ball into the box to equalise four minutes later and steal a point for the home side.

Table

Teams P GD PTS
1 Wolves 33 21 63
2 Birmingham 32 12 60
-------------------------
3 Reading 31 32 59
4 Preston 33 5 53
5 Cardiff 29 15 51
6 SheffUtd 32 14 51
-------------------------
7 Bristol C 32 6 50
8 Burnley 32 1 50
9 Swansea 31 13 48
10 QPR 31 4 47
11 Ipswich 32 8 44
12 SheffWed 32 -10 42
13 CPalace 29 5 40
14 Coventry 31 -3 40
15 Blackpool 32 -9 38
16 Doncaster 31 -10 37
17 Derby 30 -8 35
18 Plymouth 32 -11 35
19 Nott'm Forest 32 -11 34
20 Norwich 33 -9 32
21 Barnsley 30 -12 32
-----------------------------
22 Watford 30 -11 30
23 Southampton 32 -21 28
24 Charlton 32 -21 25

[johntheclaret]

Wednesday 18th February 2009
Derby Co 4-1 Blackpool
Ipswich T 2-1 Nottm For

Tuesday 17th February 2009
Burnley 1-1 Coventry C
Doncaster 1-0 Bristol C
Plymouth A 1-3 Crystal P
Sheff Wed 0-1 Barnsley
Watford 2-0 Swansea C

Table

Teams P GD PTS
1 Wolves 33 21 63
2 Birmingham 32 12 60
-----------------------
3 Reading 31 32 59
4 Preston 33 5 53
5 Cardiff 29 15 51
6 SheffUtd 32 14 51
-----------------------
7 Burnley 33 1 51
8 Bristol C 33 5 50
9 Swansea 32 11 48
10 Ipswich 33 9 47
11 QPR 31 4 47
12 CPalace 30 7 43
13 SheffWed 33 -11 42
14 Coventry 32 -3 41
15 Doncaster 32 -9 40
16 Derby 31 -5 38
17 Blackpool 33 -12 38
18 Barnsley 31 -11 35
19 Plymouth 33 -13 35
20 Nott'm Forest 33 -12 34
21 Watford 31 -9 33
-------------------------------
22 Norwich 33 -9 32
23 Southampton 32 -21 28
24 Charlton 32 -21 25