Blackpool outfought Slaven Bilic’s Watford, Phil Jagielka – at 40 – found the net for Stoke City and Arsenal’s American defender Auston Trusty is catching the eye at Birmingham City. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship…
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Blackpool
Plenty of contenders for team of the week in this latest column, so for those fans reading who like their club to be perpetually acknowledged I’ll give an honourable mention to QPR, Swansea, Preston and Cardiff by way of pacification. I’ve gone for Blackpool as my pick and there was much to admire about their work this weekend.
From the big reputation of the team they conquered, to the quality of the goals and finally the fact they were coming into the game on a poor run. To deal with two of those birds with the one proverbial stone, the team with the big reputation that Blackpool beat were Watford and the poor run Michael Appleton’s men were on had seen just one point and one goal added to the ledger in the previous four matches.
Onto the goals then and it was a lovely route one effort from Gary Madine to kick things off, before a brilliant equaliser from Watford’s Imran Louza. This is what I mean by Watford having a big reputation and players with the technical quality to produce a dead ball strike of such precision.
Hornets boss Slaven Bilic said his team didn’t show the fight and desire necessary to win, Blackpool certainly did and plenty of quality into the bargain too. Jerry Yates was the difference maker with two strikes in the final ten minutes to put this one to bed, the first one swept home left footed, the second a superb dribble and finish with five minutes to go. An excellent afternoon for Pool and they’ll hope one that can kickstart a better run than the one that has just concluded.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Phil Jagielka (Stoke City)
I’ve reached a certain point in life where I consider myself a bit of a boring old adult. I have a mortgage, a one year old daughter and responsibilities that mean I can’t go off gallivanting like I used to. I bring that up as my gallivanting for years was in the form of playing in bands here, there and everywhere and it was the reason I gave up my season ticket watching Ipswich Town. I’ll try not to date myself too obviously here but I distinctly remember during my final year as a season ticket holder a young Phil Jagielka was catching the eye at Sheffield United.
So much has changed in the world and in my life since then, but an incredible constant is that Phil Jagielka is still out there in front of Championship fans and still up to the job according to Saturday’s evidence. Jagielka’s route to Stoke City as a 40 year old has been via hundreds of Premier League games for Everton, a return to the Blades and a cup of tea at crisis club Derby County last season. Of course his champagne performance would come against the club that made him a player, Sheffield United. Jagielka rolled back the years to power home his side’s second goal from a set play, what was more of a surprise was the brilliant cross he put in for Ben Wilmot for the opener.
Jagielka’s goal meant he was the oldest player to score in the Championship since Kevin Phillips in 2014 and it was his first in the second tier since 2006, when I may or may not have had a season ticket at Portman Road!
TALKING POINT
The Pace Slows
Covering the Championship for any great length of time weds you to certain ideologies, some can be backed up by fact while others remain perceived wisdom. For example you’ll often hear people say ‘win your home games and draw away and you’ll be alright’. You’ll definitely be alright, but taken completely literally over a 46 game season, such a team would simultaneously not win a single away game whilst being the greatest home side in the history of football. I know I’m being a bit of a curmudgeonly pedant here but what they really mean is two points per game will get you promoted.
The two points per game mantra is fairly well ingrained in empirical evidence, not too many teams surpass the 92 points and only a very unlucky Sunderland side back in the day got anywhere close (90 pts) whilst missing out on promotion. The reason this number is on my mind this week is that our top two of Norwich and Sheffield United scored just one point between them in the midweek and weekend rounds.
QPR now join the Blades and Canaries in a three way tie at the top of the table on 24 points, two under the two point per game standard. By way of comparison, last season Bournemouth and Fulham were ahead of that standard at the 13 game point, while the previous season Bournemouth again and Norwich themselves were at two points per game or above. What it means we’re yet to find out, but what we do know is that the pace is currently not what it usually is and nobody has made a traditionally fast start.
LOANEE OF THE WEEK
Auston Trusty (Birmingham City on loan from Arsenal)
Arsenal continued their excellent start to the Premier League this weekend with a thrilling win over Liverpool on Sunday. Just 24 hours prior to that one of their squad members was key to a far more straightforward victory in the Championship. Auston Trusty, a lovely headline writer’s name, had a lovely afternoon playing centre half for Birmingham City against Bristol City. Trusty and his defenders had a pretty quiet afternoon against a Robins attack that seems to have stopped firing for the time being, so the Arsenal loanee decided to make his presence known at the other end of the pitch scoring twice for Blues.
Trusty’s two first half goals both came from set pieces. For the first he climbed highest to force Tahith Chong’s corner over the line and he turned poacher for the second coming alive as the ball went loose in the six year box after hitting the post.
Trusty has come over to English football from the USA, signing for Arsenal from Colorado Rapids and immediately returning there on loan. I’m not sure how much time he will have even spent at the Gunners’ London Colney training centre as he was straight back on loan to Birmingham in the Championship.
It looks as though Trusty is proving an important part of John Eustace’s improving Birmingham team, nobody has played more minutes in the league as the Blues continue to rise above their billing as many people’s tip for relegation prior to the season.
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