Sunday Review: 2nd February

Skrill Premier

The weather played havoc with the non-league schedule this weekend as the games at Alfreton, Dartford, Macclesfield, Southport, Tamworth and Woking were postponed in the Skrill Premier. The FA Trophy game at Havant & Waterlooville also fell foul of the weather.

Our key focus in the non-league this weekend did manage to take place, and 3 second-half goals from John Oster, James Marwood and Marcus Maddison helped Gateshead overcome Kidderminster Harriers, who pulled a late goal back through Marvin Johnson in a 3-1 victory for the home side at the Gateshead International Stadium. We predicted a home win in the game between Salisbury and Nuneaton and the hosts duly delivered as they came from behind to win 2-1 with goals from James White and Elliott Frear.

Halifax were unable to turn around their terrible away record as a brilliant hat-trick from Ben Tomlinson gave Lincoln City victory in their game at Sincil Bank. Two early goals gave the home side the ascendancy and after The Shaymen had pulled a goal back through Ryan Crowther, but Tomlinson completed his hat trick to give The Imps a vital 3 points in a 3-1 win. Lowly Chester lost 1-3 at home to Welling in what was a popular scoreline in the division this weekend as Harry Cornick scored his first goal for the visitors.

There were wins for Cambridge United, Grimsby and, impressively, Gosport Borough in the FA Trophy.

Winners of the weekend were undoubtedly Gateshead who took advantage of the lack of other games to solidify their play off position. Lincoln also picked up their vital 3 points to move away from the relegation zone and they’ll be delighted with their weekends work.

League Two

The Couch Pundit’s prediction of a draw was incorrect as one of the good records on the line in the game between Bury and Wycombe Wanderers at Gigg Lane was lost as Bury defeated their visitors 1-0. Forrester scored the only goal of the game as Bury’s recent good home record was maintained at the expense of Wycombe’s recent decent away run. It was an important victory for The Shakers as they moved to 20th position in the table, whilst Wanderers are now 22nd.

There are most certainly two arguments for result of the weekend in League Two as York City defeated Fleetwood 1-2 at Highbury whilst Essex based side Dagenham & Redbridge came away with all 3 points in their clash at promotion chasing Rochdale. They’ll be glad the game managed to reach a conclusion after the match between Accrington Stanley and Morecambe was abandoned after 58 minutes.

Burton Albion lost ground on their rivals at the top of the division as they drew 1-1 with mid-table whilst Oxford and Chesterfield strengthened their lofty positions with 2-1 and 3-1 wins over AFC Wimbledon and Bristol Rovers respectively. 2nd place Scunthorpe United drew 0-0 for the third time in four games away at Hartlepool United.

Chris Wilder’s first Northampton game ended in a creditable 1-1 draw at Cheltenham whilst Torquay won 0-1 at Portsmouth despite an evacuation from their accommodation in the middle of the night. Newport missed a second half penalty in their 0-0 draw at Southend and finally, Lewis Alessandra was on hand to fire in a 96th minute equaliser for Plymouth at Home Park in their clash with Mansfield Town.

The winners of the weekend were Bury who grabbed their vital win to move a couple of points above the drop zone whilst York’s magnificent result at Fleetwood can’t go without mention. Chesterfield’s victory allowed them to move 3 points clear at the top.

League One

Weather caused three postponements in League One as the matches between Coventry and Walsall, Crawley and Stevenage and Peterborough and Colchester fell foul of the weather.

Tranmere Rovers caused something of a shock as a last gasp Ryan Lowe goal have them all three points at Milton Keynes Dons. In the battle at the bottom of the division, Crewe Alexandra destroyed Sheffield United 3-0 to drag themselves closer to mid-table. The Blades are now 23rd in the table. Two more teams battling for points at the bottom are Bristol City and Carlisle and it was the hosts who ran out on top here as second-half substitute Marvin Elliott’s quick fire brace gave City a 2-1 victory.

Wolves moved into second place in the division as they defeated Bradford City 2-0 at Molineux and took advantage of Leyton Orient’s defeat at Rotherham, who won the game 2-1 with a last minute winner from ex-Orient man Alex Revell. Preston North End also strengthened their play-off position with a 2-0 victory over Notts County.

Oldham picked up a crucial victory with an impressive 0-1 away win at Swindon thanks to a goal from left-back Jonathan Grounds whilst there was a big win for Gillingham who moved into the top half thanks to a 3-2 victory after Port Vale with a brace from striker Adebayo Akinfenwa. League leaders Brentford conceded a last minute goal as they drew 1-1 at struggling Shrewsbury Town.

The winners of the weekend were Crewe Alexandra, with their 3-0 victory over relegation rivals Sheffield United being the most impressive win of the game week. Wolves will happy with their work, too, as they jumped up to second place in the division thanks to their home win over Bradford City.

Championship

It was a pulsating game between QPR and Burnley in the early game live on television. Burnley strikers Sam Vokes and Danny Ings increased their goal tally to 37 between them as they became the first team to score 3 goals against the R’s this season. Goals from debutants Kevin Doyle and Modibo Maiga and a fine volley from centre-half Richard Dunne ensured QPR stayed second after the 3-3 draw.

Birmingham City and Derby drew 3-3, too, as City rallied from 1-3 down to draw 3-3 thanks to a late goal from transfer deadline day recruit Federico Macheda, whilst leaders Leicester City made it 9 league wins in a row thanks to a late Kevin Phillips goal.

Blackburn Rovers defeated Blackpool 2-0 in the Lancashire derby whilst Sheffield Wednesday defeated Barnsley 1-0 thanks to a late, late winner from Chris Maguire in a hot-tempered affair. Three men were sent off including Tykes debutant Emmanuel Frimpong. Leeds United put their boardroom issues to one side as they trounced Huddersfield a Town 5-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Ross McCormack whilst Wigan scored two late, late goals to come from behind and beat Charlton.

Doncaster Rovers and Middlesbrough played out a 0-0 draw, whilst Ipswich strengthened their play off charge beating struggling Bolton 1-0 thanks to a penalty from David McGoldrick. Reading comfortably won 0-3 at the New Den as goals from Pavel Pogrebnyak, Alex Pearce and Daniel Williams gave The Royals the 3 points.

Sunday’s games saw Nottingham Forest comfortably beat Yeovil Town 3-1 and Watford registered a rare victory by beating Brighton 2-0.

Winners of the weekend may well be Leicester City yet again as they moved 10 points clear whilst a special mention should go to Sheffield Wednesday who maintained their recent good form under Stuart Gray with their win over Barnsley.

Premier League

Ahead of the big one still to come on Monday, Arsenal beat Crystal Palace thanks to a brace from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to move back to the top of the table. Liverpool lost ground in the title race as a blunder from Kolo Toure let in Victor Anichebe to score as West Brom came from behind to nick a 1-1 draw.

Sunderland impressively thumped local rivals Newcastle United 0-3 at St James’ Park thanks to goals from Fabio Borini (pen), Adam Johnson and Jack Colback whilst West Ham United beat Swansea City 2-0 after Kevin Nolan scored a brace before striker Andy Carroll was controversially sent off for a seemingly accidental clash with The Swans’ Chico Flores.

Cardiff and Everton both came from behind to beat Norwich and Aston Villa 2-1 respectively whilst Southampton impressively beat Fulham 0-3, with goals from England hopefuls Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez. Tottenham were held to a 1-1 draw at Hull City, with Paulinho rescuing a point for Spurs with a second-half goal to cancel out Shane Long’s opener.

Stoke City beat Manchester United for the first time since 1984 with Charlie Adam scoring a double. Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie all started in attack for the first time, with the latter briefly equalising the first of Adam’s brace but this was another disappointing result for the Red Devils.

The game at The Etihad promises to be exciting and if City can extend their fine recent run, they’d be a great bet for the title.

How did your side play this weekend? We want to know! Comment below or catch us on Twitter (@the_couchpundit) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/thecouchpundit).

The Couch Pundit.

Conference:The Mid-Season Review

Here at The Couch Pundit we want to cater for everybody’s interests and we made a decision to focus our articles on the top 5 tiers of English football and the National team in the build-up to the World Cup this summer.

So, we’re going to try and round up each of the top 5 divisions in 500 words as they glide past the half-way mark and we’ll start with the Skrill Premier.

The Skrill Premier has always been a very competitive division and this season that is definitely the case again. With not a vast amount of points between 3rd and 18th place this season, almost anything can happen from now until the end of the season. I’m not sure anybody pre-season would have placed Alfreton Town in 3rd place as we get two thirds of the way through the season (albeit with some teams having 5 games in hand – though points on the board are important). They’re the over-achievers in our opinion

Luton Town, finally, after a couple of years of struggle, seem to have conquered the fifth tier and lead the way along with Cambridge United. The sob story of the season is Hyde FC although they were finally able to celebrate (and we celebrated too!) with a win away at Welling United last week who are having decent in their first season back at this level. Fellow promoted sides Salisbury City and FC Halifax Town have both adapted to the Skrill Premier with FC Halifax in particular having a superb home record.

Grimsby Town are battling at the right end of the table but our tips for the title, Kidderminster Harriers, have been woefully inconsistent of late and may have to settle for the play-offs again. Gateshead’s fortunes have improved under Gary Mills and they have risen to 4th with only one defeat in 12 at the time of writing, against Luton. Barnet’s attempt to get back into the Football League is faltering with Paul Fairclough back in temporary charge, replacing the departing hot-headed Edgar Davids.

Tamworth and Southport have struggled this season which is no surprise given their 19th and 20th place finishes last season respectively. More surprisingly down at the bottom is Dartford who has mustered a disappointing 22 points from 29 games. Aldershot Town might be battling away for a play off spot without the 10-point deduction but instead face a relegation battle with the aforementioned teams and Chester, the promoted team struggling the most at a higher level. Woking and Lincoln City are perhaps the two who could get sucked into a relegation battle and Hereford United will struggle to get anywhere other than mid-table.

Forest Green Rovers and Wrexham, in particular, have most certainly under-achieved and with two of the biggest budgets in the league you wonder whether January will be make-or-break for these two clubs this season. Troubled Macclesfield Town’s season is improving with a good run in the FA Cup and 5 wins in the last 6 league games as they look to battle financial problems off the pitch.

Who’s going up? We reckon Luton win the league and Grimsby Town beat Cambridge United in the play-off final.

Who’s going down? The Couch Pundit hopes Hyde FC stay up but thinks they’ll drop (bold prediction, I know), along with Southport, Chester and Dartford.

Fans of Skrill Premier clubs, or football fans in general, who is going up and down from this division? Let us know!

The Couch Pundit team.