QPR finally delivered for Gareth Ainsworth - at Burnley no less! Swansea City are now surging with the playoffs in reach and panto villain Sammie Smodzics did his best Diego impression against Preston. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship...
TEAM OF ROUND
QPR
When Burnley confirmed promotion in record time over Easter, all the talk turned to how they would finish the season with their mission essentially already accomplished. The overwhelming narrative I was presented with was that Vincent Kompany wasn't the type to let standards drop and that fabled 106 point record held by Reading was under real threat of being beaten. Post promotion Burnley did start well by defeating Sheffield United, but since then it turns out that even Kompany isn't impervious to an end of season intensity drop.
Points record holders Reading held them 0-0 and then Rotherham took a point off the Clarets in a 2-2 draw. Most shockingly though was this weekend's result as Burnley put their undefeated home record up against horribly out of form QPR.
The R's arrived at Turf Moor having won just once in their previous 21 games and with newly installed boss Gareth Ainsworth really struggling to turn the ship around with the relegation iceberg looming on the horizon. Sensationally QPR left Burnley with all three points after Chris Martin's 87th minute goal sealed a highly unlikely 2-1 win. Rangers conceded 81% of the possession and 21 shots but scored a vital victory in the most surprising of locations and circumstances.
The three points lifts QPR just above the group of teams right around the relegation line and with the knowledge that head to heads are on their way for those teams in a potentially breathless final fortnight of the season. I'm not saying this crazy win allows Rangers to sit and put their feet up, but it certainly has relieved the pressure massively.
PLAYER OF THE ROUND
Sammie Smodzics (Blackburn Rovers)
There was no doubt who was the key antagonist in the Lancashire derby between Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers in the late kick off on Saturday. Blackburn's Sammie Smodzics ended up centre stage and like all true pantomime villains he most definitely entered stage left. The dastardly act that set all of the eyeballs in Deepdale on the Blackburn forward was a 'hand of god' style goal that Szmodics attempted on the hour mark. Substitute Ben Brereton-Diaz put in a lovely cross that was punched in off the crossbar by the former Bristol City man. If you didn't look twice the speed of the incident would have you believing it was a perfectly legitimate goal.
I don't want to get on my moral high horse here, but I'm going to! We all know in the heat of battle that a professional sportsman will do whatever it takes to beat their opponent. I can forgive somebody for instinctively throwing out their arm at a cross, but where I struggle is the continuation of the charade by running off and celebrating the goal and then pleading innocence when it transpires that the officials are indeed aware of the infraction.
Of course we all know that public enemy number one Szmodics was nailed on to score a legitimate goal after the handball episode and it turns out he's a rather more handy player with his feet, turning inside and finishing beautifully into the corner much to the irritation of the Preston fans.
Having been subbed off Szmodics was probably yelling from the bench for teammate Ryan Hedges to run the ball into the corner when he was sent down the left wing with barely a minute of remaining stoppage time on the clock. Hedges gave the ball back cheaply to Preston and within about ten touches and ten seconds, it was in Blackburn's net courtesy of a Dom Hyam own goal. For Blackburn it's a big missed play-off opportunity, for Szmodics it's a reminder that the pantomime villain always gets their comeuppance in the end.
TALKING POINT OF ROUND
Swansea surge
Just over one month ago on 18th March, Swansea City were languishing in 18th place heading towards a season of underachievement. The disaster of their January transfer window and subsequent rant from boss Russ Martin was looking like it would be the defining event of the Swans season. Roll forward to close of play on 22nd April and incredibly Swansea are now just three points off the play-offs and well and truly in the conversation to become the mythical team that 'came from nowhere' to crash the end of season knockout games.
How have Swansea done it? Well, there are two reasons; their good form and everyone else standing still! The comfortable 0-3 win at Martin's former club Norwich was Swansea's sixth out of seven. In that period not only are Swansea the top points scorers in the division with 19 points, but nobody else is anywhere near them in terms of output and have allowed them to cut right through the field and into the slipstream of the teams holding the play-off spots currently.
We've pondered for a while now that it will be a far lower than average points total to get into the play-offs this season but, given the iffy form of pretty much everyone up ahead of them, why not Swansea? Two more wins in their final games would bring the total to 68, it would be an amazing late run to the line but in the Championship we know anything is possible.
LOANEE OF THE ROUND
Sory Kaba (Cardiff City on loan from Midtjylland)
If Cardiff are successful in their bid to avoid the drop this season we will all reasonably point to the arrival of Sabri Lamouchi as manager as the key moment. Lamouchi has steered Cardiff towards a point where they probably only need one more win to claw themselves above the relegation line, but the manager was not the only vital arrival in January. Lamouchi came with just days left of the January window and he used that time very effectively to bring in striker Sory Kaba on loan from Midtjylland.
It was definitely a case of 'Sory not sorry' as Kaba was a new name for me, but the Guinean striker has been absolutely key to Lamouchi's Cardiff. Kaba's output now stands at seven goals and an assist in his previous nine appearances and he was also on target in all three of the Bluebirds games in this past week as the end of the season comes into view.
Obviously Cardiff's attention will be focused entirely on the short term with relegation still a possibility, but long term I'm sure Kaba returning next season will be right at the top of the priority list if and when survival is confirmed.
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