Blackpool 4 (Evatt 59, Adam 64, Burgess 70, Baptiste 89)
Scunthorpe United 1 Hayes 51
Attendance: 7,727
Ian Evatt put Blackpool’s second-half revival down to changing their kit at half-time. The only thing worse than the weather at Bloomfield Road was the home team’s first-half showing. However, the change of shirt, prompted by a need to get dry and the superstitions of Ian Holloway, the manager, resulted in a new Blackpool emerging.
They went 1-0 down when Paul Hayes chipped Matthew Gilks but hit back through Evatt before Joe Murphy, the Scunthorpe goalkeeper, was sent off for handling outside the area. The first job for Sam Slocombe, Murphy’s replacement, was to pick Charlie Adam’s strike out of the net before goals from Ben Burgess and Alex Baptiste sealed it. “None of the lads were happy with the shirts,” Evatt said. “They were all a bit too big and not the same colour as our usual ones. The gaffer asked us to change and it worked.”
Crystal Palace 1 (Ambrose 65)
Middlesbrough 0
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Attendance: 15,321
Gordon Strachan is already growing exasperated at his Middlesbrough side’s failings in front of goal. A series of missed opportunities at Selhurst Park left Middlesbrough with a record of two defeats and no goals since Strachan replaced Gareth Southgate. “It doesn’t matter if you are unlucky — you have your chances in a game and if you don’t take them, then you’ve got a problem,” he said. “It’s only bad luck if a dog stops one of your chances going in. But when you create chances and not take them, it’s nothing to do with luck. It’s frustrating when you are creating chances and not taking them.”
Darren Ambrose’s goal secured Palace’s first win in six games. “We put a lot of work in, but that’s the kind of team we are — we’ve got no stars,” Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, said. “That performance is a credit to them. We didn’t have a star today — we had 11 stars.”
Leicester City 1 (Berner 90+4)
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Dorrans 37, Jara 40)
Attendance: 28,748
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Jerome Thomas, the West Bromwich Albion winger, emphasised the professionalism of Joey Mattock, his team-mate, who was booed on his return to Leicester. Mattock signed for Albion last summer after asking to leave City, a decision that angered fans. But he was composed, playing an important part in his side’s victory, which came through goals from Graeme Dorrans and Gonzalo Jara.
“You’ve got to remember that Joey’s only 19,” Thomas said. “People move on, your career goes on, you just have to be professional and he was. Now he has to take the lads out for a meal — the rule if you beat your old team.” Martyn Waghorn, the Leicester striker, said that Paul Gallagher, his team-mate, was angry after a miss from close range early in the second half. “If we’d scored, we could have been flying, but it wasn’t our day,” he said. Bruno Berner claimed Leicester’s late consolation.
Nottingham Forest 1 (Morgan 85)
Bristol City 1 (Haynes 90)
Attendance: 21,467
Billy Davies, the Nottingham Forest manager, has reignited his dispute with David Pleat after insisting on control of the club’s transfer budget in January. The Scot has frequently been at odds with the club’s acquisitions panel, headed by Pleat, the football consultant. “A manager should be a manager of every club,” he said. “A manager does not want to complain about budget or financial constraint, but he does want to find out the budget and what he is working with. Then he can go and do what he does best, which is identify and recommend players. Then he can either get patted on the back or sacked for the job he has done.
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“Maybe that is too old-fashioned for some, but not for me.” Davies was frustrated after seeing his side take a late lead through Wes Morgan only for Bristol City to level five minutes later, when Danny Haynes rifled into the bottom corner.
Plymouth Argyle 2 (Judge 26, Fallon 71)
Doncaster Rovers 1 (Shiels 29)
Attendance: 9,420
Rory Fallon, the Plymouth striker, is set for the biggest week of his career as his New Zealand side take on Bahrain in a World Cup play-off. Fallon scored Argyle’s winner on Saturday and then left for Wellington. “I just want to do well for myself and put in a good performance,” he said. “No matter what happens, I’m going to enjoy myself.”
Fallon secured the three points that lifted Argyle out of the bottom three. Alan Judge handed the home side the lead but Dean Shiels scored a deserved equaliser for Doncaster. But the away side’s cause was harmed by a second yellow card for Martin Woods, the captain. Sean O’Driscoll, the Doncaster manager, said that Paul Taylor, the referee, had admitted to his players that he had been “too hasty” and “made a mistake”. O’Driscoll said: “If he had waited four or five seconds, would he have made that decision?”
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Reading 1 (Church 47)
Ipswich Town 1 (Stead 9)
Attendance: 19,053
Liam Rosenior, the Ipswich defender, predicts that both teams can mount a push for the play-off places despite this stalemate. The full back is on loan from Reading but was allowed to play and helped his new club to a point. Both sides are in the bottom three, yet Rosenior is convinced that they can still achieve promotion.
“I have watched a few of Reading’s games and they should be getting more points,” he said. “It’s rather like at Ipswich in that we should be turning draws into wins and losses into draws. If you can go on a run, you can still get in the play-offs.”
Jonathan Stead opened the scoring for Ipswich before Simon Church’s first goal at the Madejski Stadium. But there was a hint of fortune because he was struck on the knee by Gylfi Sigurdsson’s shot.
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“It was a great feeling to finally score my first goal at home,” Church said. “It was that little bit of luck I needed.”
Sheffield Wednesday 1 (Johnson 12)
Queens Park Rangers 2 (Simpson 9, Gorkss 81)
Attendance: 19,491
Queens Park Rangers can set their sights on promotion in style under Jim Magilton, the manager, according to Kaspars Gorkss. The Latvian defender scored the winner, his first goal since joining the club last year, after Jermaine Johnson had cancelled out Jay Simpson’s opening strike for Rangers before half-time.
The victory lifted Rangers to fourth place and Gorkss is impressed with the methods of Magilton. “No one is looking too far ahead, but we have hopes that we can at least reach the play-offs,” Gorkss said. “We just need to keep winning, and it doesn’t matter in which way, but the manager wants us to play with the ball more and wants everyone to have it. Before, my main thing was to defend and head the ball, but now we are getting more involved in the build-up stuff as well. My all-round game is improving. I’m learning different things and new skills.”
Swansea City 3 (Dyer 9, Pratley 33, 61)
Cardiff City 2 (Bothroyd 32, Hudson 35)
Attendance: 18,209
Joe Ledley confessed that Cardiff City deserved to leave the Liberty Stadium empty-handed after a poor defensive display. Cardiff’s promotion charge was dented by Swansea City, who extended their unbeaten run to ten games. “We can’t complain about the result,” Ledley said. “We weren’t good enough. We didn’t know what was going on in the first 20 minutes and gave away two silly goals.
“We managed to get back to 2-2 but we gave away another sloppy goal. We’ve got to cut out these mistakes. This was a derby and we had to keep our heads but we didn’t.” Nathan Dyer, the smallest player on the pitch, headed Swansea in front before Darren Pratley extended the lead. Cardiff were level after Jay Bothroyd and Mark Hudson struck in the space of three minutes. But the visiting team allowed the unmarked Pratley to secure Swansea’s first league win over Cardiff since 1998.
Watford 2 (Helguson 9, Cleverley 33)
Preston North End 0
Attendance: 13,524
History could repeat itself at Vicarage Road this season. Four campaigns ago, Adrian Boothroyd took his relegation favourites into the Barclays Premier League, and after losing four big names this summer Watford were viewed as strugglers. But Malky Mackay’s astute short-term acquisitions, such as Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley and Arsenal’s Henri Lansbury, have changed Watford’s fortunes and as a bonus tickets go on sale today for a concert next year by Sir Elton John, the former chairman. The proceeds, which may reach £1 million, will go to Mackay’s transfer fund.
“I’m loving it here, but I’m ready to play in the Premier League,” Cleverley, 20, said. “I’ve watched United’s games and I don’t think they’ve hit their best form this season. I’ve looked at the people in my position and thought, ‘Why not?’
I could step up. I’m ready.”