By Henry Hudson
February 6 2012
With most games falling victim to the cold weather over the weekend there was a lot less action than usual in League One but in spite of this, Henry Hudson brings us a review of the results and action from the League One matches that did take place......
Unfortunately, this weekend’s set of fixtures in League One and in other divisions were severely reduced thanks to the freezing weather and as a result very few games took place and although the matches that did not succumb to the icy conditions were decent viewing, my review will still be significantly shorter than if the League One schedule have gone ahead as planned.
In the end, just four games took place this Saturday in League One including Tranmere’s trip to Wycombe which got the go ahead thanks to the under soil heating at Adams Park. It's unusual for a League One club to have that resource especially one like Wycombe as many would perhaps suggest that a club like them would not have the money to splash out on those kinds of luxuries. Nonetheless, it's these sorts of times where that form of investment comes to be a wise choice.
As for the matters on the pitch, Tranmere's woes away from home of course as they were defeated again, even though they took a very early lead against the division's basement club. The hosts however, showed why they are in this division by hitting back with two goals in seven minutes to win the match and that win for Wanderers lifted them out of the relegation zone putting Walsall, whose game at Scunthorpe was called off, into the bottom four. Tranmere maintain a healthy gap between them and the clubs below despite the loss.
Lowly Yeovil Town came close to causing a major upset at promotion chasing Sheffield Wednesday. The home side's fantastic record at Hillsborough looked under threat as John Obika gave the Somerset team a halftime lead. However Wednesday did come back to win the match with a winner ten minutes from the end to deny Yeovil a shock result. Despite the late defeat Yeovil fans and players can take a lot of positives out of this game, they were expected to crumble at the knees of their superior opposition, yet they put up a great fight and manager Gary Johnson will expect his players to perform this admirably for the games to come.
Gary Johnson's Yeovil Town side almost caused an upset at Hillsborough this weekend
With that win over Yeovil Town, Wednesday move up into second place after Huddersfield Town were held to a draw again, this time my fellow promotion-chasers MK Dons. Huddersfield did take the lead, this time not via prolific striker Jordan Rhodes. However the hosts were pegged back by Karl Robinson’s team in the second half.
After such a strong start to the season with so many draws, Huddersfield fans will be getting very frustrated with their sides failure to keep leads. The further Huddersfield fall behind leaders Charlton, the more pundits begin to question whether Lee Clarke’s side have the necessary credentials to compete in the second tier of English football. As for MK Dons, they are gradually sneaking up the table and their focus will now be to consolidate a play-off position.
Chesterfield sank to the bottom of the League after a narrow loss at Carlisle. Chesterfield did hold a lead until fifteen minutes from time but Carlisle snatched two goals to come out victorious. This match could probably tell people who had not seen Chesterfield before, why they are fighting for survival in this League. They can achieve but they have simply not got the ability to close out matches. This game also, in turn, showed why Carlisle were promotion contenders, although they are not the best team in the League, technically, their players showed great character to mount the great comeback under tremendous pressure from the home fans who now expect higher standards of performances from their team.
Despite the unpleasant weather, we still did learn a lot about some of the teams in League One, things we may not have seen before. We saw that Yeovil are still a very competitive team which can really compete in this division. Many Football League pundits doubted Yeovil’s ability to stay in the League, but now we have seen how, on their day, can hold their own against the heavyweights of League One and many opinions may have changed.
Many had forgotten about Carlisle, whom have been the dark horses (alongside Stevenage) of the league so far, but the character and determination they showed to overcome a motivated Chesterfield, will send out a message to all that Carlisle are not be written off. After another draw for Huddersfield we now doubt their ability to do the business on the pitch, but could they prove us wrong next week when they travel to Leyton Orient?
The best game next Saturday will surely be at Stevenage where 6th hosts 7th, a win for Carisle would take them into the play-offs at the expense of their opponents. Meanwhile, League One leaders Charlton face a trip to League One basement boys Chesterfield.
With the cold weather ceasing, all the games this weekend should go ahead so at least we can definitely look forward to a full set of fixtures next time out.
View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
StumbleuponRelated Articles:
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.