Championship Results 7th August 2010 Part 2

Hull City 2-0 Swansea City
Seven years ago, Swansea beat Hull and stayed in the Football League. This time, they’re meeting on rather higher ground following Hull’s relegation from the Premier League last season. How times change. The result was different too.
Hull might have sold some of their best players but they looked solid today. Maybe they’ve found their level – but on this showing, they are one of the best at this level. It’s just a shame their best goal was scored by a Tottenham Hotspur player, I do tend not to like players from that club although I do like Gareth Bale. But there’s plenty of time for this to change. Swansea were very poor and they made a poor start last year before nearly getting into the play-offs. You could say their poor start cost them the play-offs but they also had a poor run at the end of the season. This is the fifth consecutive occasion on which they’ve lost their opening match.
Ashley Williams and David Cotterill played the full match. David nearly scored from one of his free kicks while a pass from Ashley deserved to be an assist. David Cornell was on the bench with new signing Neil Taylor. Jazz Richards was thought to be in with a chance of starting but he didn’t make the squad.

Leeds United 1-2 Derby County
Derby have been in the Championship longer than Leeds but with Leeds’ history, many would have expected a home win. But this is not what happened. Instead, Leeds suffered their first opening-day defeat since 1989 – two years before Leeds’ loanee Wales-eligible striker was bron.
Leeds weren’t that bad. Kasper Schmeichel was in great form in goal for Leeds – probably not many teams, on promotion to the Championship, get rid of their keeper and buy the guy who played for the team promoted from League Two. But this looks like a not completely ridiculous decision. Without him, Derby would have won by more than one goal.
Arsenal’s Sanchez Watt is with Leeds for a second loan spell and, after spending most of his first loan spell on the bench, he started this match and stayed on the pitch until the end.
Derby have signed left back Gareth Roberts from Doncaster Rovers and he proved his worth when a goal-line clearance late on meant Derby could leave with all three points.
Derby also have Robbie Savage in midfield. I wasn’t sure about Robbie’s hair or his tackles but there’s no doubt he can still play. He is thinking of retiring at the end of this season but at the moment you wouldn’t guess it. The goal might just possibly have had something to do with Robbie but let’s not mention that.

Middlesbrough 1-3 Ipswich Town
Middlesbrough are the favourites for promotion but they didn’t look it against the team who last season needed fifteen games before they found their first win. Middlesbrough’s team looks a bit like my fantasy football teams – full of players that are the same nationality as their manager.
I didn’t think Ipswich were all that good as the main reason for their win seemed to be awful defending from Middlesbrough. While one of Ipswich’s goals in particular was quality, Boro should never have allowed the ball to stay in the box as long as it did.
But Steve Claridge said Ipswich were excellent and he knows what he’s talking about so they probably were.
Boro’s first-choice goalkeeper Brad Jones was suspended after a red card in the final match of last season so Danny Coyne had the chance to impress. Unfortunately he didn’t really except he did do one really good save.
Troy Brown was on the bench for Ipswich and he’s got a nice new number too. He’s ditched the No. 39 shirt for the No. 22 shirt which sounds a lot more promising.