This weekend’s round of Sky Bet Championship fixtures turned out some strange results and some curious stats. In this round-up we focus on former EPL side Newcastle who lost for the first time in a month. We also take a view on what was billed as a ‘six pointer’, the match between Cardiff and Leeds United.
This week’s stat-attack looks at the Rams of Derby County – can they break their 400-minute goal drought? All that, plus league leaders Huddersfield Town and relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers – did they manage a win?
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Newcastle stumble
It was all going so well for Newcastle United and their manager Rafa Benitez. Winning 5 matches in-a-row, scoring 17 and conceding just 1 in the process. But then along came Wolverhampton Wanderers to St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon and the winning streak was over.
The Geordies suffered a 0-2 loss to Walter Zenga’s side, who came into the match on the back of a heavy 4-0 defeat at home to Barnsley and no win in 3 games. Chancel Mbemba and Helder Costa were on the score sheet in each half and in truth, Wolves were rarely in trouble.
Wolves boss, Zenga, was extremely pleased with the result: “I am delighted because I got an answer from the team. We prepared for this game to show to ourselves first of all that the last 15 minutes of the last game was an accident, was something that can happen in football.”
Newcastle manager Benitez reflected on a poor performance: “It's a bad day, but we have to analyse what was wrong and try to change it. It's not that you have to forget - you have to forget, but try to understand why and try to correct things as soon as possible.”
Battle of the six-pointer – Cardiff v Leeds who came out on top?
Both Cardiff manager Paul Trollope and Leeds boss Gary Monk were feeling the heat ahead of this match, due to their abject performances in the league so far this season. For the Bluebirds of Cardiff, 3 straight defeats in the league saw them in the relegation zone.
Despite a win for Leeds in midweek, the fans and boardroom expectation of the Yorkshire side meant that pressure was still on Monk ahead of their trip to South Wales.
Ultimately it was the English side that triumphed at the Cardiff City stadium by 2 goals to nil, both goals coming in the second half from a Wood penalty and a late Hernandez strike.
Monk was rightfully relieved: "This is another step in the right direction. We are getting there slowly; we've not yet had that complete performance but we are growing. It was important to get those back-to-back wins and see how these young players deal with that momentum."
For Blues fans, it was another defeat that leaves them rooted to the bottom of the Sky-Bet Championship and 1 win from 8 games means increasing pressure on Boss Trollope. His side were unlucky, however, hitting the post twice in the first half before Leeds scoring against the run of play through the penalty.
Trollope lamented yet another loss: "I thought we were in pretty good control, we needed one of the chances to go in and they didn't. The refereeing decision changed the game, which was frustrating for us because there was a lot going on at set-pieces at both ends.”
Coyle’s relief – At last a win for Blackburn
Last week’s bottom club, Blackburn Rovers, finally managed a win; an exciting 4-2 victory coming on home soil against fellow strugglers Rotherham United. Coming from 1-0 down with 2 goals in either half will ease the pressure on boss Owen Coyle, which moves Rovers off the bottom albeit on goal difference.
Blackburn’s next 2 games in the Sky Bet Championship are away to struggling Derby County and then home to mid-table Sheffield Wednesday. Coyle will be hoping that they will be able to pick some points up in these games to drag themselves out of the relegation zone.
He suggested after the game that it was the result that was critical: "The most important thing today was to win. It was important we got the three points, but it was the manner of the performance and how we won.”
Rotherham’s manager Alan Stubbs, by contrast, was left frustrated and now find themselves just 1 point outside the drop zone: "First and foremost, we have to cut out basic, fundamental mistakes that we're making. I can't think of any goals that we've conceded where teams have completely cut us open. We're significantly contributing to our own downfall by making basic mistakes and we're getting punished.”
Terriers back to winning ways
The Huddersfield Town fans will rightly be celebrating again in West Yorkshire after a dominant performance against Queens Park Rangers. The Terriers came out 2-1 winners, a result that maintains their top position in the Sky Bet Championship by 2 points.
Town had to show their resilience in the latter stages of the game after finding themselves 2-0 up after an hour, with goals from Kasey Palmer and Elias Kachunga. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s QPR managed to get a goal back through Idrissa Sylla to ensure a tense finish, however, it was Huddersfield who held on for a deserved victory.
David Wagner was quick to praise the team’s response after their midweek loss: "It was a great reaction by the group after Brighton. Our one target was to bounce back with the right result.
“This was a huge, massive result for us with a performance that was brilliant, fantastic, great. I don't have enough vocabulary to describe it. I cannot say how happy I am."
Town now have a trip to playoff hopeful’s Reading next in the League, followed by welcoming strugglers Rotherham to the John Smith’s stadium for a Yorkshire Derby. They will hope that the loss during last week, was just a blip and they can continue their winning run.
Derby finally score! But still don’t win…
After 400 minutes without scoring a goal in the Sky Bet Championship, the Rams of Derby County finally managed to get the ball over the line against Bristol City. However, that wasn’t enough to secure a victory as a 94th minute tap in by City’s Aaron Wilbraham denied Nigel Pearson’s team the victory.
The Rams boss was clearly frustrated by the result: “The reality is that it is a very big opportunity lost for us. We have created clear-cut chances that we have spurned at 1-0.
“When that happens it just takes a lucky break or a bit of good play with the opposition throwing extra men forward and we paid the penalty.”
That leaves Derby County sitting in 20th place with just 6 points from 8 league games. Their one and only victory - and only other time they have scored so far this season - came away at Deepdale against Preston over a month ago.
In the 5 games since that victory, the Rams have had 66 shots with just 16 of those attempts on target, converting only one of those into a goal. Only 1 of every 66 shots results in a goal; Pearson clearly needs to do a lot more on the training ground with his team.
The match against Bristol City heralded another interesting stat, this time for the home side. Wilbraham’s tap-in was not only his first of the season so far, but his first since April.
However, for City’s striker, this means only 155 minutes on the field without a goal. It seems that Derby County would love to have a striker with a conversion rate like that.
