Championship Round-Up

Our defeat at Watford sees us occupy a mid-table 12th with six other clubs who have won one from two.

Coventry, Birmingham and the unlikely Preston lead the table with the perfect 6 points. Coventry had a good 2-1 away win at Barnsley and Birmingham came from behind at St. Mary's to beat Southampton by the same score, Kevein Phillips again coming on to net the winner. Meanwhile, Preston rode their luck to beat Palace 2-0. Palace went close twice and had a strong penalty appeal turned down. The defeat leaves them fourth bottom.

Big Chris Iwelumo netted twice as Wolves won their first home game 4-1 against Sheffield Wednesday to go fourth on four points. Reading also won at home 2-0 against Plymouth to join Wolves on four points. Cardiff City are also on four points having snatched a late equaliser at Doncaster Rovers. The fixtures are favouring the Bluebirds after playing Southampton at home; next week they have Norwich at Ninian Park. The point also puts Doncaster on four points and an unexpected 8th placing. Bristol City and Watford are the final clubs on four points, City having drawn at home to Derby County.

After their surprise home loss to Preston, Ipswich bounced back by winning 3-0 at Turf Moor. Super Kevin Lisbie scored his second of the season in a match which was delayed for an hour because of a stranded parachutist on the stand roof. All clubs should learn a lesson from this!
Result of the day was arguably Sheffield United's convincing 3-0 win over promotion expectant QPR. Diminutive Billy Sharp scored all three as Iain Dowie moved into the lead in the Championship sack race. QPR face Doncaster Rovers at home next week and the pressure will be on the Hoops. Rangers and Sheffiled Wednesday remain on three points are are joined in mid-table by the Swans who beat fellow promotees Nottingham Forest 3-1 in front of 16,611 fans.

The bottom of the table already contains a number of the fancied strugglers; Norwich and Blackpool got their first point courtesy of a 1-1 draw between the sides at Carrow Road, which will be a disappointment for Glenn Roeder after an unlucky defeat at Coventry on the opening day. Norwich dominated the game and Jamie Cureton hit the woodwork but they had to rely upon a second half Daryl Russel l goal to salvage the point. Plymouth, Forest and Palace remain on one point after home draws last week and Derby join the one-point club after their draw with Bristol City.

Barnsley, Southampton and Burnley occupy the trap-door places on nil points and they all face tough away matches next week at Birmingham, Derby and Palace respectively.

Attendances weren't great this week considering it was the first home game; only three sides, Norwich, Sheffield United and Wolves broke the 20,000 mark. There were only 14,413 at Watford and 1500 of those were Charlton fans. Southampton managed 18,925 at home but Birmingham presumably took 2-3,000, so apart from a half-empty stadium, the atmosphere might not have been great for Southampton. Doncaster's first home game against F A Cup finalists Cardiff City was watched by 11, 873, so they will struggle to avergae more than 10,000 if they struggle this year.

A home win for the Addicks in the early game on saturday would push us up to 4th and we would probably slide back to 8th after the rest of the days games are played. Our players should be looking forward to Saturday; if we work like we did on Saturday, we should be able to make a game of it and I think we can beat Reading.