The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 7

eration over one would set

the tone for a some-

times niggly first half.

There was some

extended arguing over the distance

of a long Villa wall as Young prepared

for a free kick a little way outside the

Palace penalty area. Eventually, the

various defenders and Villa decoys

lined up in their legitimate places

before an anticlimax. After all the rig-

marole, Bailey directed the free kick

into the wall.

LEAGUE TWO

Forest Green Rovers

moved six points clear

at the top. They won

2-0 in their West

Country derby against

Bristol Rovers despite

having Udoka Godwin-

Malife sent off in the

63rd minute. Jamille

Matt scored both

goals, the second from

the penalty spot.,

Northampton Town

replaced Exeter City in

second place after

Sam Hoskins hit the

only goal at Leyton

Orient. Exeter were

held 1-1- at in-form

Rochdale. Jake Beesley

hit a post with a first-

half penalty for the

home side.

Swindon Town’s five-

match winning run

ended with a 1-1 draw

against Harrogate

Town. Jack Payne

scored their late

equaliser from the

spot.

Oldham, who parted

company with

manager Keith Curle

last week, lost 2-0 away

to Salford City, while

Sutton United are a

point from the

automatic promotion

places after their 1-0

defeat of Barrow.

second-half winner in

Blackburn Rovers’ 1-0

victory away to Stoke

City. It was their fifth

win in seven matches

lifting them to fourth.

Chris Wilder secured

his first success as

Middlesbrough

manager, 2-1 away to

Huddersfield Town.

Their first win in six

matches came through

a Duncan Watmore

double. Luke Daniels’s

own goal arrived too

late for the home side.

Lukas Jutkiewicz’s

late goal gave

Birmingham City their

first win in four games,

1-0 against Blackpool.

The most exciting

thing about

Peterborough United’s

0-0 draw with Barnsley

was a power failure ten

minutes from time that

halted the game for

20 minutes.

PRESTON NORTH END

Evans 72 1

FULHAM

Ream 15 1

Villa were to master their next

dead-ball routine. Young lifted a cor-

ner towards the twin targets of Ollie

Watkins, and behind him, Targett.

Watkins stumbled under a challenge,

Targett brought the ball down with an

imperfect touch, but with enough

control and space to direct an angled

shot past Vicente Guaita.

At the other end, Palace’s principal

threat was meanwhile contained. Wil-

fried Zaha had provided a moment of

brilliance early on, taming a pass from

Michael Olise on the half-turn and,

switching direction twice, left Ezri

Konsa and Matty Cash grounded. He

then dragged his left-footed effort

wide.

From then on, Zaha and Palace

were frustrated. Zaha was booked

after a confrontation with Cash, and

with 20 minutes left he gave way to

Odsonne Édouard. Shortly after, Pal-

ace’s exasperation grew. Briefly Villa

thought they were down to ten men,

Luiz shown the red card for a late,

high tackle on Cheikhou Kouyaté. On

a second look, via VAR, the referee

Michael Salisbury changed his deci-

sion to a booking.

Palace would register their first

shot on target with only 11 minutes of

the 90 remaining, Christian Benteke’s

overhead attempt comfortably

clutched by Emi Martínez. Édouard

then tested Martínez a little more rig-

orously, the busy Conor Gallagher

having found a way through.

If that hinted at an equaliser,

McGinn dampened home hopes with

Villa’s second, a handsome finish

from the Scot after a slick move, initi-

ated by Targett and accelerated by

Anwar El Ghazi. Gerrard has been

encouraging McGinn to be bold,

from distance, and is evidently an

admirer of the midfielder. “He’s a

ball of energy,” the manager said.

“It’s infectious.”

Palace, stronger in the second

half with Eberechi Eze returning to

action after a long absence and Édou-

ard and Jordan Ayew adding some

vim, did score a consolation goal. But

by the time Guéhi, stretching to push

Kouyaté’s cross past Martínez, struck

there was too little time left to mount a

full comeback.

Handball controversy denies furious Silva

but with no VAR in the Championship,

the goal stood and three points had

turned into one, with Silva unhappy

with the referee Chris Kavanagh.

“We started to lose some energy

and our reaction second half was not

the best,” Silva said. “But even in

this situation, the goal came

from a big mistake from the

referee and the linesman.

“It was a clear foul on

the goalkeeper and a

handball. It’s difficult for

us to accept something

like that. We had a bad

performance in the second

half and so did the referee.

We lost three points and it was

not our fault.”

It was all looking good for Fulham.

Jean Michael Seri sent over a delicious

free kick, which was begging to be put

in and the captain Ream obliged for

his first goal since 2017.

However, anyone expecting them

to kick on and dominate would have

been disappointed as they became

sloppy and disjointed, which allowed

Preston to grow. Just after the restart,

Antonee Robinson was lucky as his

scissors challenge on Tom

Barkhuizen resulted only in a yellow

card, with the Preston man hobbling

off minutes later. But that acted as a

catalyst for the home side to pin

Fulham back and they were

rewarded with Evans’s

equaliser.

“The goal was the least

we deserved from the

second half, although

there was a bit of

controversy about it,” said

Frankie McAvoy, the

Preston head coach.

Star Man Emil Riis (Preston).

Preston (3-5-2): D Iversen 6 — S van den Berg 7, L

Lindsay 6, A Hughes 6 (G Cunningham 90+4min) —

T Barkhuizen 6 (J Storey 53, 5), A McCann 6, B

Whiteman 6, A Browne 6, J Earl 6 — E Riis 8, S

Maguire 5 (C Evans 60, 6).

Booked Van den Berg, Evans.

Fulham (4-2-3-1): M Rodak 6 — D Odoi 7, T Ream 6,

T Adarabioyo 6, A Robinson 6 — J M Seri 6 (B

Decordova-Reid 69, 3), H Reed 6 — H Wilson 6, F

Carvalho 5 (A Knockaert 81), N Kebano 6 (J Onomah

69, 4) — A Mitrovic 5. Booked Robinson, Onomah.

Referee C Kavanagh.

Marco Silva was left frustrated by his

team’s second-half display but more so

by a controversial goal as Fulham

dropped points for the second time in

less than 72 hours.

Having drawn with the bottom club

Derby County on Wednesday night,

they managed only a share of the

spoils again from their trip to

Lancashire. Hanging on after Tim

Ream’s 15th-minute goal, Fulham were

eventually pegged back by the

substitute Ched Evans’s equaliser.

It was the use of the hand by

Preston North End’s Emil Riis in

blocking Evans’s header before the

Welshman bundled in the rebound

that caused such annoyance, along

with a possible foul on the goalkeeper

Marek Rodak. TV replays captured it,

ROB NEWELL

McGinn

celebrates a

handsome finish

from a slick Villa

move, which

delighted

Gerrard, below

FOOTBALL

LEAGUE

FOCUS

The Sunday Times November 28 , 202

Carroll scores

Reading’s second

goal at Swansea

Adam Lanigan

Handel’s Messiah will

have a Christmas

outing in Cardiff next

month, although

Cardiff City fans could

have been excused for

an early rendition of

the Hallelujah Chorus

yesterday when their

side scored a first-half

league goal for the first

time this season in their

2-1 win away to Luton

Town (Peter Wilson

writes). Whether or not

Rubin Colwill will reign

for ever remains to be

seen, but he was

certainly the king for

the Cardiff travelling

contingent with his

tenth-minute header.

Jordan Clark

equalised for the home

side midway through

the second half, but

Sean Morrison’s header

secured the points.

Hull City made it four

wins in a row, with a 2-1

victory over Millwall.

George Honeyman and

Tom Bradshaw

exchanged first-half

goals before Ryan

Longman’s decider.

Andy Carroll scored

his first goal in almost a

year and Danny

Drinkwater his first in

nearly four years as

Reading won 3-2 away

to Swansea City.

Jamie Paterson fired

the home side in front,

with Tom Dele-Bashiru

replying immediately.

Carroll, who has signed

on a short-term deal

with Reading, put

them in front with a

deflected shot. Ryan

Manning volleyed

Swansea level before

Drinkwater’s clincher.

Reda Khadra struck a

CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND-UP

LEAGUE ONE

Plymouth Argyle lost

for the third successive

match, 2-1 at home to

promotion rivals Wigan

Athletic. Callum Lang’s

90th-minute strike

lifted the visiting side

into second place.

Rotherham United

remain top but only on

goal difference. They

extended their

unbeaten run to 16

matches in all

competitions, after

they were held 0-0

away to a depleted

Oxford United.

Sheffield

Wednesday went a

tenth match unbeaten

but they dropped out

of the play-off places

after a 2-2 draw with

Wycombe Wanderers.

The match had to be

held up to allow a

spectator to receive

medical attention.

MK Dons were the

beneficiaries as two

Matt O’Riley goals

lifted them into the

play-off spots with a

4-0 win away to

Morecambe.

Jack Tucker’s

stoppage-time own

goal gave Portsmouth a

1-0 victory away to

Gillingham, It was their

sixth straight win in all

competitions.

Sunderland moved

up to fifth with a 2-1 win

away to Cambridge

United, where Nathan

Broadhead’s powerful

strike was decisive.

Charlton Athletic’s

six-match unbeaten

run ended with a 1-0

defeat at Shrewsbury

Town. Daniel Udoh hit

the stoppage-time

winner.

1

Accrington Stanley’s

1-0 win at Lincoln City

was manager John

Coleman’s first league

win there in nine

attempts

Jamille Matt scored

twice for Forest Green