It's Round and It's White
Liam O’Connor rounds up the action from matchday five of the Championship.
Matchday five of the nPower Championship didn’t dissapoint following the International break. There were two games that took place on Friday night, one of them the South-East London derby between Charlton and Crystal Palace infront of the Sky Sports cameras. Kagisho Dikgacoi’s fierce volley after 51 minutes condemned the Addicks to defeat on what was the Eagles first league win at the Valley in 44 years. In the other Friday night fixture, Brighton recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday. Wayne Bridge put the Seagulls ahead in the first-half as he saw his free-kick take a deflection on it’s way past Chris Kirkland. The victory was completed in the second-half courtesy of Craig Mackail-Smith’s fifth goal in three games, then Will Buckley made it three for Brighton’s third straight win.
The game of the day came at Ashton Gate where Blackburn sealed a hard-fought 5-3 victory against Bristol City. Albert Adomah gave the Robins an early lead with barely a minute on the clock. Rovers’ £8m signing Jordan Rhodes put the sides level after 28 minutes. However, the second-half proved to be a goal-fest. Nuno Gomes put Blackburn ahead with a composed finish on 55 minutes, then Stephen Pearson grabbed an equaliser 12 minutes before Ruben Rochina restored the visitors lead. The Robins hit back immediately through Sam Baldock to make it 3-3, but just as they thought they’d rescued a point, two injury time goals from Scott Dann and a second goal for Rhodes bagged all three points for Steve Kean’s men.
There was a seven-goal thriller at Turf Moor as Peterborough suffered their worst ever start to a league campaign following a 5-2 thrashing from Burnley. Chris McCann gave the home side an early lead before Lee Tomlin’s penalty and a Nathaniel Mendez-Liang strike put the visitors infront. Michael Bostwick’s own-goal late on in the first-half put the sides level at 2-2. Three goals in the last 15 minutes sealed the points for Burnley. Charlie Austin’s double, one of which was from the spot, was followed by a goal from Junior Stanislas to send Peterborough crashing to their fifth straight league defeat.
Hull City put on an impressive first-half show to record a 4-1 victory over Millwall at the KC Stadium. Robert Koren got the Tigers on their way after 14 minutes, smashing a 25-yard effort past the helpless Maik Taylor. Former-Lion Jay Simpson doubled the home sides advantage, then four minutes later Abdoulaye Faye made it 3-0. Sone Aluko made it four after just 40 minutes played, and the Lions had veteran keeper Taylor to thank in the second-half to prevent an even more embarrassing scoreline. Darius Henderson’s header on 63 minutes was no more of a consolation goal for Millwall.
Craig Bellamy’s stunning free-kick set Cardiff on course for three points against Leeds as they earnt a 2-1 win. Soon after Bellamy’s goal, Peter Whittingham doubled the home sides lead from the spot. The visitors scored a free-kick of their own after 77 minutes with Rodolph Austin somehow finding the back of the net from 30-yards out, however it wasn’t enough to earn Leeds anything from the game. Elsewhere in the Championship, Nottingham Forest and Birmingham played out a 2-2 draw, with all the goals coming in the last 20 minutes. Hayden Mullins put Birmingham infront before Marlon King doubled the visitors lead just two minutes later. Sean O’Driscoll’s side fought back however, Simon Cox getting the first goal with a clever lob over the keeper but then with four minutes left Pablo Ibanez deflected Dan Harding’s shot into his own net to earn Forest a point.
Middlesbrough maintained their 100% winning start at home as goals in either half from Luke Williams and Mustapha Carayol earned them victory over Paul Jewell’s Ipswich. At the Reebok, Bolton earnt their first win in three after narrowly seeing off Watford 2-1. Matt Mills scored his first for the club after three minutes before Kevin Davies doubled the lead just before the break. Lloyd Doyley’s cross found it’s way past Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan to pull one back for Watford but the home side held on for the win. Huddersfield continued their bright start since promotion to the Championship, defeating Derby County 1-0 thanks to Danny Ward’s goal after just 47 seconds. Meanwhile at Oakwell, Barnsley were held to a 1-1 draw by Blackpool following Thomas Ince’s equaliser and fifth goal in five games despite going infront through Craig Davies in the first-half.
The only game on Sunday came from Molinuex as Wolves recorded a narrow 2-1 win over rivals Leicester. Early goals in the first half from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and former Leicester man Richard Stearman gave Wolves the best possible start. However in the second half, Leicester applied pressure onto the Wolves back four and pulled a goal back. Paul Koncheskey recieved the ball and let fly from 30-yards which found the top corner, and that was arguably the goal of the weekend in the Championship.
