I've been up since 6.15am with my 3 year old. No problem on a morning like this one. Not even the damp and grey sky can affect my positive mental well-being. Whilst my girl has been enagaged with Charlie and Lola, I have had plenty of time to wallow in the Blogger reviews and gorge myself on unusually generous Sunday papers. It makes you realise just how starved we have been of good football and matching results in the last year.
First off, the table shows that we are sitting sixth on 6 points with Sheffield United, Swansea, Coventry and QPR. Preston, Bristol City, Wolves and Birmingham sit above us but only Brum have more than a point advantage on us as they sit with 9 points from three games.
Kevin Phillips made it three from three yesterday at St Andrews as Birmingham romped to a predictable 2-0 win over Barnsley (I predicted it anyway!). Conversely, Barnsley lead at the bottom of the table having lost all three of their games so far. "Big club" Birmingham really showed their mettle yesterday, pulling in 17,413 supporters for their second successive home win, as their fickle Premier League following deserts them. The resolve of those that were there have yet to be tested.
Sheffield United recorded their second win of the season with a 3-1 win at Blackpool who have only a point to show from three games. Greg Halford notched the third and the Blades will be confident of consolidating their early season start next week when they take on Cardiff at Bramall Lane.
Cardiff themselves drew at home with Norwich City who could afford to miss a second penalty of the season. Arturo Lupoli, the unlikley loan signing from Fiorentina came off the bench to score twice in four second-half minutes to bring Norwich back into the game. Norwich will have another testing game at home to Birmingham next week.
Coventry's hundred per cent start to the season finished at the Ricoh as Bristol City romped to a 3-0 win to maintain their unbeaten start and take third spot in the table. Gary Johnson's side have the advantage of a second home game to come next week and will be up for the visit of QPR.
Whilst 20,020 fans were revelling in it at the Valley, 14,071 rocked up at Selhurst Park for what the Sunday Times described as "feeble entertainment." Palace failed to score for the third time this season and their failure to adequately replace Clinton Morrison may cost Simon Jordan heavily this week if he is forced to address it. If he doesn't, it might cost Palace dearly in the coming months. To make matters worse (better?), Palace had Scowcroft and Derry dismissed, so will face an even harder task at Reading next week.
Derby County have really hit rock bottom. Yesterday they lost 1-0 at home to Southampton to make it a record 35 league games without a win. Thirty-five league matches without a win? Just think about that for a few moments. To their credit, there were still 27,000 there to witness it, the biggest Championship crowd of the day. Paul Jewell is a good manager and a proud man. This will really be hurting him and next week he has to avoid defeat at bottom-of-the-table Barnsley or he could face a vote of confidence.
Wolves consolidated their unbeaten start with an impressive 2-0 win at Ipswich. Town were reduced to ten-men and Jim Magilton described their performance as "embarrasing." Mick McCarthy won't be complaining as he looks forward to a second home match next week against Forest which should see Wolves established as early contenders this year.
Forest themselves won their first game in the Championship with an encouraging 3-2 win over Watford in front of 20,005 fans. Tommy Smith scored both for the Hornets in between each of Forest's three goals, in what sounded like a game that might have come close in entertainment value to that at the Valley.
Plymouth slipped to a 1-0 home defeat in Swansea in the 5.20 game and find themsleves in the relegation places on one point having played two at home. Next week they face the haul to Burnley for an early season six-pointer.
The Super Hoops beat Doncaster Rovers 2-0 at Loftus Road to ease the pressure on Iain Dowie. There were 15,536 there to see it and some of them will go to Ashton Gate next week as QPR try and establish some momentum.
In the division's only other game yesterday, Sheffield Wednesday took a first half lead over Preston North End but couldn't get the second and succombed to a 77th minute equaliser which might support Preston's claim as the early-season surprise package. We shall find out for ourselves next week.
It has been confirmed that Linvoy Primus has been signed on a year-long loan at the Valley and will join us later this week. He is carrying a knock and is unlikely to feature at Deepdale, but you have to expect that he will force Fortune into the reserves when fit. This is not a complete surprise following the unusual two-page feature on the Portsmouth player in Saturday's programme.
Irrespective of next week's result at Preston, the Valley faithful will return in three weeks time (international weekend on 6th September) expectant of a repeat performance in a match against Wolves which promises at this stage to be another entertaining affair. It would be very nice to go into the break having avoided a second defeat of the season.
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Dave, it's best not to make taunting remarks about attendances. Ours are a work of fiction.
ReplyDeleteAs i've explained to the club 'attendance' means the number present.
The figure given by Charlton is the number of tickets sold including season tickets.
Nothing like 20,000 at the game yesterday.
However, regular performances like yesterdays could well result in 20,000+ attendances.
Daggs - I understand how the gate works and agree there were less than 20,000 there yesterday. What's important is that 20,020 paid. I'll bet Palace were light on their 14,071 as well.
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