Sheff Utd board run out of patience with Selles

There were signs of encouragement at the start of Sheffield United’s trip to Ipswich on Friday night.

Speaking to Sky Sports before kick-off, Blades manager Ruben Selles said he and his staff had “analysed what we were doing in absolutely everything” during the course of the international break. Initially, it showed. They looked confident; far from a team cut adrift at the bottom of the Championship table.

But, crucially, there was no end product. There had been no shots on target in their first two away games against Swansea and Middlesbrough. They finally mustered two at Portman Road. By then, though, it was too late.

A second-half collapse resulted in a humiliating 5-0 defeat. The encouragement was extinguished – and the ‘sacked in the morning’ chants from the stands returned.

Post-match, the Spaniard spoke about needing to feel the pain of the chastening loss. He made clear his worry was not for his job, just how to improve the situation his and his players are in. “I believe in myself,” he added.

The question was, after a fifth straight defeat at the start of an EFL season for just the second time in the club’s history – just months after they reached the Championship play-off final – how much more patient could the club’s board afford to be?

That was answered on Sunday afternoon, when it was announced he had been relieved of his duties as manager.

It was a gamble from the club to appoint Selles – and one that did not pay off.
Dan Long

Squad depth on Stoke’s side as they continue to impress

Mark Robins is building something at Stoke City. Four wins in the first five matches marks their best start to a league campaign in 27 years.

Very early indications would suggest the Potters are set for their best Championship finish since relegation. Which isn’t saying much. Remarkably, the club have failed to finish in the top half since they dropped down from the Premier League in 2018.

A successful summer of recruitment, an encouraging start to the campaign and a top level manager will have them hoping for even more.

Sorba Thomas is already proving to be an astute acquisition. Everything good about Stoke came through him against Birmingham City. Million Manhoef proved to be an absolute handful on the opposite flank – especially in the first half.

The home side really warmed to debutant Tomas Rigo. The Slovakian international delivered an all action display in his first 71 minutes in the red and white.

And it’s the depth of this squad which will give confidence that Robins’ side can stay the course. The match winner Bosun Lawal and captain Ben Wilmot were outstanding in the centre of defence. Spurs loanee Ashley Phillips and Ukraine international Maxi Talovierov will have to bide their time.

Robins felt his side were ‘outstanding’ in victory. In truth, they showed fluency in the first half whilst grinding out the victory in the second. It was more nervy than it needed to be but there are plenty of reasons to be positive.
James Savundra

Much-anticipated South Coast derby fails to live up to billing

There was so much talk about the South Coast derby in the lead-up – and rightly so. It was the first in six years and the first in the league since 2012.

Both Will Still and John Mousinho had talked up its importance, too, making clear the players would know of its importance to their respective sets of fans.

There was an electric atmosphere beforehand. The noise was deafening as the players walked out; the fireworks, pyrotechnics and enormous tifo, emblazoned with the face of Saints legend James Beattie, took it to another level.

But the game itself never once sparked into life. The was just one shot on target for each team, neither of which troubled the opposition goalkeeper. The xG score? Southampton 0.88 – 0.60 Portsmouth.

Still summed it up best in his post-match press conference as “a flat balloon”. “It was just a bit of a dull derby that didn’t really reflect what we want to be,” he added.

Given the strength of Southampton’s squad – on paper, at least – Portsmouth will be the happier with the point, but both of these teams will be counting down the days to the return fixture at Fratton Park on January 24.
Dan Long

Jones rues red card as Charlton fail to beat local rivals

It has been 29 long years since Charlton last managed to beat their south London rivals Millwall. That so nearly changed on Saturday, with the Addicks leading up until the 88th minute.

In the end it was the 74th-minute red card for Kayne Ramsay that cost them, with late pressure telling and Ra’ees Bangura Williams grabbing a winner. Nathan Jones was left ruing yet more points dropped at home.

“I’m proud of the performance because it took a red card for us to draw the game,” the Charlton boss said. “We were comfortable and I didn’t see us conceding today.

“It was going to take something – like a set-play or a moment of madness to concede and we got a moment of madness.
Charlton are without a win now since opening day. And have let good performances come to nothing in their last two home games. It is a situation Jones will need to rectify if they are to remain in the Championship.

“We’re comfortable at the level,” he said. “We should have had six points from our last two home games but we took one.

“We got in so many times in the first half but without having an end product. If we do that we’re comfortably ahead by half-time. We didn’t show moments of quality which we need to.”
Simeon Gholam

‘Sod’s law’ strikes for Preston at Deepdale

When the goal-line technology isn’t working for the afternoon, you just know what’s going to happen, don’t you.

Usually so reliable, the system had to be switched off at Deepdale before kick-off between Preston and Middlesbrough due to technical issues.

Cue a last-minute Boro equaliser that may or may not have squirmed over the line from Sontje Hansen. Unsurprisingly, Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom wasn’t best pleased.

“We knew before the game we didn’t have it (goal-line technology). It’s just Sod’s law that decides the game,” he said.
“I’m hoping someone shows me a photo of it crossing the line to make me feel better, because I can’t see at the minute how it crossed the line.

“The linesman gives it and it’s old fashioned, but I’ve just got no trust in the officials at the minute because they try and give everything, don’t they?

“They try to give fouls when there’s nothing there to be seen, so I’m hoping I get some video footage that makes me sleep better.”

We can only hope that someone has shown Hecky the pictures since Saturday, and that he has been able to get some kip.
Simeon Gholam

Derby spoil The Hawthorns’ 125th anniversary for WBA

On the face of it, it looked like West Brom were going to go into this game and just get another win.

Derby hadn’t won in the league and West Brom were unbeaten. If they had won, the Baggies would have gone top. But the game just didn’t go that way.

West Brom dominated possession and had a few chances in the first half, but nothing clear-cut. Isaac Price had a really good chance in the first 15 minutes or so, but it was straight at the goalkeeper. Mikey Johnston looked bright, and they had a few moments where they it seemed like it was going to click eventually.

But in the second half, Derby changed up their gameplan and looked far more exciting. Changes were made and Andreas Weimann and Patrick Agyemang came on – and, from that moment, West Brom just didn’t know how to deal with them.

That’s how they got the goal. The ball came in from the right, those two were on the left. Agyemang flicked it on to Weimann, who scored after some individual brilliance.

If you look at the stats, it should’ve been a West Brom win, but they didn’t take their chances and they looked most threatening after they went a goal down. By that point, it was too late.

It was a tough result for West Brom as it was the 125th anniversary of playing at The Hawthorns – incidentally, they faced Derby in the first game there, too. They drew that day, but the Rams spoiled the party this time.
Sam Obaseki

Key stats from the weekend

• League leaders Middlesbrough have gone unbeaten in their opening five games of a league campaign (W4 D1) for just the third time this century, previously doing so in 2011/12 and 2018/19.
• Stoke City have won four of their opening five games of the Championship campaign (D1); their most at this stage of a second-tier season since 1978/79 (W4 D1), which ended in a promotion.
• Raees Bangura-Williams’s late equaliser stretched Millwall’s unbeaten run against Charlton to 13 league games (W7 D6), last suffering a defeat against the Addicks in March 1996.
• Will Lankshear has scored more goals than any other player aged under-21 in the Championship this season (3), netting in three of his last four league outings for Oxford.
• Bristol City’s Anis Mehmeti has been directly involved in five goals in five appearances in the Championship this season (three goals, two assists), while scoring and assisting in consecutive games in the competition for the first time (v Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday).

All Championship weekend results

Friday

Saturday

Sunday