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EFL Round-Up – Gameweek 4: Derby Back on Track and Colchester Stun Crewe

Welcome back to EFL Round-Up by Last Word on Football. This column delves deep into the world of the Football League, looking at the key games from each of the three divisions as well as providing a brief overview of every result from the Championship, League One and League Two.

In this, the first fully mid-week edition of EFL Round-Up, we look at Frank Lampard’s Derby, who got back on track after a brief blip, Barnsley’s incredible start to life back in League One and Colchester’s stunning rout over Crewe Alexandra.

EFL Round-Up – Gameweek 4

Derby Back on Track With Ipswich Win

Frank Lampard’s Derby got back to winning ways in the league thanks to second-half goals from Joe Ledley and Tom Lawrence. The Rams had suffered back-to-back league losses as they went down 4-1 at home to Leeds and lost 2-1 away at Millwall but put in a good performance to get back on track against Paul Hurst’s side.

The Tractor Boys held out in the first half, but were stunned by the quality of Derby’s opener. The away side failed to deal with a corner, and former Crystal Palace man Joe Ledley was on hand to rifle a first-time effort into the top corner.

It didn’t take long for the lead to be doubled, thus making the game seemingly safe. Tom Lawrence, who scored a free-kick earlier in the season against Reading, repeated the feat this time around, although perhaps not quite as convincingly as he’d hoped. Ipswich keeper Bart Bialkowski got a massive hand to the effort, but couldn’t prevent the ball from trickling over the line.

The loss for Ipswich means that their wait for a first win of the season goes on, after two draws and two losses, while Derby re-enter the top half of the table having plummeted down with their two losses.

Barnsley Continue Formidable Start to League One

A hat-trick from Kieffer Moore helped Daniel Stendel’s Barnsley side maintain their unbeaten start to life back in League One. Although the Tykes may not boast a 100% start like Peterborough and Portsmouth, they are still the only EFL side yet to concede a league goal so far in this campaign.

Brad Potts opened the scoring for Barnsley on their trip to Rochdale, heading in from Moore’s cross on 35 minutes. The visitors doubled the lead less than ten minutes later through Moore, bagging the first of his three, heading in from an excellent Dani Pinillos cross.

Rochdale almost got back into the game straight after half-time through substitute Joe Rafferty, but Barnsley virtually put the game to bed almost immediately after when Mamadou Thiam drove up the pitch and laid on for Moore, who cut inside and fired past Josh Lillis.

Moore completed his hat-trick midway through the second half with a wonderful solo goal. Turning on the edge of the box, he danced his way through the Rochdale defence before neatly finishing past Lillis to Barnsley’s fourth and seal a resounding victory.

Colchester Stun Crewe With Six-Star Rout

Crewe featured on the first EFL Round-Up of the season for all the right reasons after their stunning 6-0 victory over Morecambe, but all of that will have been forgotten after the goal difference they claimed from that game was completely wiped out by Colchester.

The U’s were 2-0 up within eight minutes after early goals from Frankie Kent and Brennan Dickenson, and Dickenson added his second midway through the first half, firing into the roof of the net at the far post for Colchester’s third.

Ryan Jackson added the fourth just before the hour mark with a low effort past Dave Richards in the Crewe goal, and Luke Norris made it five 15 minutes later, finishing from Kane Vincent-Young’s pass.

Three minutes after Norris’ finish, Colchester added some final gloss to the scoreline through Tom Lapslie as he finished off a ball from Dickenson.

Elsewhere in…

The Championship

On Tuesday night, Queens Park Rangers made it ten goals conceded in two games as they went down 3-0 at home to Bristol City, who won thanks to Andreas Weimann’s brace and Matt Taylor’s opener.

Rotherham United went ahead against Hull City but couldn’t hold onto it, as Hull recorded a 3-2 away victory. The Millers gave themselves a chance with Jamie Proctor’s late goal but it wasn’t enough to salvage a draw.

Finally, Pablo Hernandez scored against his old team as Swansea and Leeds played out a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Liberty Stadium.

On Wednesday night, Jonathan Kodjia scored a brace, including a 95th-minute equaliser, as they drew 2-2 with Brentford at Villa Park, while Blackburn came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at home to Reading.

Late goals from Teemu Pukki and Alex Tettey gave Norwich the win over Preston on Alex Neil’s return to Carrow Road, while Barry Bannan’s stunning volley helped Sheffield Wednesday overcome Millwall 2-1 at Hillsborough.

Bolton Wanderers continued their fine start to the season as Will Buckley’s solitary goal maintained their unbeaten start against Birmingham, and finally, Stoke City’s return to the Championship remained a miserable one as two goals from Will Grigg and a Gavin Massey strike gave Wigan a 3-0 away win at the bet365 Stadium.

Middlesbrough, Sheffield United, West Brom and Nottingham Forest were not in action after going a game ahead of everybody else on Tuesday 7th August.

League One

On Tuesday night, a bizarre Will Nightingale own goal helped Walsall on their way to a 3-1 away win over AFC Wimbledon, while Accrington Stanley also recorded an away win with a 3-2 win at bottom side Oxford United.

Blackpool moved back into the top half of the table as second-half goals from Mark Cullen and Joe Dodoo eased them past Coventry, Jack Payne’s goal was enough for Bradford to overcome Burton Albion and Portsmouth maintained their 100% start to the season with a 2-1 away win against Bristol Rovers.

Also maintaining their perfect start were Peterborough United, who took the three points at Charlton thanks to Jason Cummings’ controversial last-minute penalty.

First-half goals from Elliot Lee and Danny Hylton gave Luton a 2-0 win over Southend, Wycombe secured a late point on their long trip down to Plymouth and neither Doncaster or Shrewsbury could find a way past each other in a 0-0 draw.

In the two Wednesday games, Sunderland continued their impressive start to life under Jack Ross, coming from behind to win 4-1 at Gillingham, while Joey Barton’s Fleetwood did all of their hard work in the first half away at Scunthorpe. The Cod Army were up by four at the break and added a further goal after half-time.

Leauge Two

Exeter City continued their excellent start to the season as early goals from Jonathan Forte and Jayden Stockley eased them to victory over Cambridge, while Lincoln also remained towards the top of the table with a 2-1 win over Bury.

Port Vale’s torrid away form continued as they went down 2-1 to Carlisle United, Morecambe were narrow victors over Northampton Town and Notts County dropped to the foot of the EFL after a 3-2 loss to Newport.

Nine-man Swindon conceded a 99th-minute penalty as Crawley, who also had a player sent off in Josh Payne, rescued a point after being 2-0 down.

Macclesfield and MK Dons were both held to home 1-1 draws against Cheltenham and Grimsby respectively, while Forest Green drew 0-0 with Stevenage, as did Tranmere against Mansfield and Yeovil at home to Oldham.

Stats You May Have Missed

  1. Fleetwood’s 5-0 victory over Scunthorpe on Wednesday was their biggest ever win in the Football League.
  2. Stoke’s Ashley Williams has been sent off in two of his last three league starts.
  3. Away sides seem to be doing the business in League One, as a 2-1 victory in favour of the visitors is currently the most common score in the division (12.5%).
  4. Notts County have conceded ten goals already this season – it took them 11 games to get to that point last season.
  5. Brentford’s Neal Maupay is already a third of the way to equalling his goals total from last season, just four games into this campaign (12 last season, four currently this season).

Stats One and Two from Opta

Stats Three, Four and Five from FootyStats

Main Photo

 

 

Embed from Getty Images

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