Barnsley 4 Doncaster Rovers 1
Attendance 15,086
Jamal Campbell-Ryce, the Barnsley winger, believes that Darren Moore’s
sending-off could be the catalyst to turn the team’s season around. Barnsley
were behind to Brian Stock’s eleventh-minute penalty in their South
Yorkshire derby with Doncaster Rovers at Oakwell when Moore was shown the
red card in the 50th minute after pulling down Lewis Guy. But goals from
Stephen Foster, Campbell-Ryce, Jon Macken and Iain Hume grabbed an unlikely
victory. “I’m not saying that Darren getting sent off has done us the world
of good,” Campbell-Ryce said. “But when we respond like that, you can say
perhaps that he has saved us.”
Sean O’Driscoll, the Doncaster manager, refused to blame his players. “I have
no problem with their ability or attitude,” he said.
Birmingham City 1 QPR 0
Attendance 18,498
Birmingham were indebted to Kevin Phillips, the veteran striker, as his goal
moments before half-time gave his side a narrow victory over Queens Park
Rangers at St Andrew’s on Saturday. Alex McLeish, the Birmingham City
manager, said that his faith has been restored in his promotion-chasing team
but his men again made hard work of their latest success. “It wasn’t a
fantastic performance, but it was a sleeves-rolled-up type of game,” McLeish
said. “For some reason I had a lot of faith in my players in this game.”
Iain Dowie, the QPR manager, denied that he is under pressure, despite his
team picking up only one point from their past four matches. “I am confident
that I will get time to do the job at Rangers,” he said. “I was reading the
other day that we have recently had our best start for 11 years.”
Blackpool 1 Cardiff City 1
Attendance 7,328
A bitterly disappointed Dave Jones, the Cardiff City manager, said that
Blackpool’s late equaliser was hard to take as his team were forced to
settle for a draw at Bloomfield Road on Saturday. Paul Parry put the
visiting team ahead seven minutes from the final whistle, but in the last
minute of stoppage time Alan Gow rifled in an equaliser. “That was hard to
swallow – five minutes of extra playing time in the second half when there
was only three minutes in the first, when more players were going down,”
Jones said.
Despite his team’s impressive result, Simon Grayson, the Blackpool manager,
believed that his players had not shown the creative nous of which they are
capable. “It has been a difficult, three-match week for us and we began to
look a bit leggy,” he said. “Our creativity, particularly in the opposition
territory, was not as good as it has been.”
Charlton Athletic 2 Ipswich Town 1
Attendance 20,643
An own goal by Moritz Volz, the Ipswich Town defender, gave Charlton Athletic
a much-needed win at The Valley on Saturday and has given Alan Pardew, the
manager, breathing space. After successive defeats, Pardew admits that he
had started to feel the heat and that he was desperate for a win. “My
emotion afterwards was relief for Charlton as a club, we really needed that
win,” he said. “The pressure was on. This week has been tough.”
Nicky Bailey had fired Charlton ahead with a superb free kick after six
minutes, but Ipswich drew level when a cross by Jonathan Walters was turned
into his own net by Martin Cranie. Despite the defeat, Jim Magilton, the
Ipswich manager, remained in a positive mood. “We were competitive and
showed a real desire to try to get something from the game, which is exactly
what you want,” he said.
Coventry City 4 Southampton 1
Attendance 15,518
Two goals from Jay Tabb and one each from Leon McKenzie and Leon Best helped
Coventry City to bounce back after a midweek defeat away to Cardiff City,
and Chris Coleman, the manager, insisted that his team deserved their
convincing win over Southampton at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday. “We could
have been four up at half-time – I don’t think anybody could have had too
many complaints if we had been,” he said. “I said that I wanted to see where
we are after ten games and we’ve already achieved my target of 15 points.”
Andrew Surman gave the away team a glimmer of hope in the 62nd minute when he
finished from 12 yards to make it 3-1, but Jan Poortvliet, the Southampton
head coach, said: “We have to learn from this because we played two good
games and then we perform like that.”
Norwich City 1 Derby County 2
Attendance 24,771
Derby County made it six matches unbeaten when Nathan Ellington, the striker
on loan from Watford, hit an 85th-minute winner at Carrow Road on Saturday –
despite the sending off of Roy Carroll, their goalkeeper with 40 minutes
left to play. Sammy Clingan scored from the penalty spot to cancel out Rob
Hulse’s first-half header, but Ellington was on hand to grab the winner.
Paul Jewell, the Derby manager, was pleased with how his side coped despite
playing nearly half a match with ten men. “We showed the character that was
sadly lacking last season,” he said.
Glenn Roeder, the Norwich City manager, believed that his team was hard done
by. “Once again our goalkeeper has had nothing to do apart from picking the
ball out of the net a couple of times,” he said. “We had them under real
pressure after we’d equalised, then we started slowing it down.”
Nottingham Forest 0 Crystal Palace 2
Attendance 22,811
A convincing win by Crystal Palace at the City Ground on Saturday left
Nottingham Forest stranded at the bottom of the league after suffering six
defeats in seven matches. Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, expressed
sympathy for Forest but he has no doubt that they will find a way out of
their predicament. “They need something to drop for them but at the moment
it’s not happening,” he said. “It’s been a good week for us after a poor
start to the season. But you only find out about your team when you are not
doing well.”
Colin Calderwood, the Forest manager, remained defiant and has backed his
players to get the club out of trouble. “I still have no doubts that we will
get out of the bottom three,” he said. “No disrespect to Neil, but it’s easy
for opposition managers to praise us after they’ve taken points off us.”
Plymouth Argyle 4 Sheffield Wednesday 0
Attendance 10,795
Paul Sturrock, the Plymouth Argyle manager, was delighted with his team’s
discipline as they soared to fifth in the table with a convincing win over
Sheffield Wednesday at Home Park on Saturday. Sturrock remained faithful to
the starting lineup that had begun the previous three matches but admitted
he was wary of the wintry weather that swept across Devon. “The conditions
played a huge part out there and I know people may wonder why I did not
change things around and freshen it up, but I felt the wind could benefit
Wednesday more than us in the second half,” he said.
Brian Laws, the Sheffield Wednesday manager, thought his side played better
than the result suggests. “I’m a little bit shocked,” he said. “People will
now look at that score and say we got a drubbing, but on reflection the
first and third goals came from errors.”
Reading 3 Burnley 1
Attendance 18,621
Reading ended Burnley’s nine-match unbeaten run to extend their own 100 per
cent home record at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday. Noel Hunt scored the
first, his brother, Stephen, nodded the second and Shane Long’s goal ensured
that Chris McCann’s 89th-minute header for Burnley was a mere consolation.
Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, praised Noel Hunt for the first goal, a
header that the Irishman did not even know he had scored. Hunt received a
blow to the head after nodding home. “It was a brave header – shame he
can’t remember it,” Coppell said. “He’s got concussion. He got a real clout
on the head and I’m not sure he realised where he was.”
Owen Coyle, the Burnley manager, was disappointed with the defeat. “There were
two teams out there who were trying to pass and move the ball, but I’m
disappointed to be on the end of a 3-1 scoreline,” he said.
Sheffield United 3 Bristol City 0
Attendance 24,712
James Beattie put Bristol City to the sword in this victory at Bramall Lane.
The former England striker pounced either side of the break to complete a
hat-trick of league wins for United before the Steel City derby away to
Sheffield Wednesday this month. Kevin Blackwell, the Sheffield United
manager, paid tribute to his star performer. “Beatts’s first was absolutely
superb,” Blackwell said. “He showed what he can do if you give him the
service.”
In between, Liam Fontaine, the City centre back, turned Stephen Quinn’s free
kick into his own net. Marvin Elliott spurned an opportunity to equalise
soon afterwards, leaving Gary Johnson, the visiting team’s manager,
dejected. “We’ve got to hold our hands up,” he said. “We warned the players
about set-plays, but we didn’t deal with them. We were second best and
there’s no point in pretending otherwise.”
Swansea City 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Attendance 17,556
Roberto MartÍnez, the Swansea City manager, hailed a complete performance
after his team handed Wolverhampton Wanderers, who are among the favourites
for promotion, a second comprehensive defeat in four days at the Liberty
Stadium on Saturday. The home team went ahead after 25 seconds through Jordi
Gómez and although Andy Keogh equalised in the sixteenth minute, two goals
by Jason Scotland, one either side of the interval, gave Swansea a deserved
victory. “It was a very pleasing afternoon, both with the goals we scored
and the chances we made, and it was a complete performance,” MartÍnez said.
Wolves tried to fight back but Swansea held firm. Mick McCarthy, the manager,
said: “We recovered after going a goal down but we defended poorly. Our
missing players would not have made any difference.”
