Results round up 21-09-02 R-W

Mullins
By Paul Holmes
September 22 2002

Round up of results from the weekends action - part R-W.

Rotherham 1 Brighton

Controversy surrounded Rotherham's fifth win of the season. After 35 minutes Brighton's Richard Carpenter challenged Darren Byfield, the loose ball fell to Alan Lee, who had a Rotherham player touched the ball would have been in an offside position. Lee continued to the goal while Brighton's defenders and Andy Petterson stood still waiting for the offside whistle, which never came, allowing Lee to lift the ball into an empty net.

Rotherham's excellent start to the season continues, will they still be there come May? Who knows but one thing is for certain - Ronnie Moore will be touted with every big club job that comes available form now on. Brighton boss Martin Hinshelwood is rumoured to be close to the sack. Next week they entertain bottom club Grimsby in an early relegation scrap.

Sheff Wed 0 Leicester 0

Leicester only managed a point at Hillsborough, mainly due to honest hard work by The Owls.

Paul McLaren and Leon Knight both came close to taking the lead for Wednesday as did Frank Sinclair and Callum Davidson for The Foxes.

Wednesday's play lacked creativity after the departure of Gerald Sibon at half-time but the work-rate didn't drop. A defeat would have been harsh on either team.

Watford 3 Crystal Palace 3

A terrible refereeing decision took the gloss of a very entertaining encounter as Wayne Routledge received his first professional red card.

The game itself was kicked into life after 24 minutes when Hayden Mullins drove home after Dougie Freedman miskicked his chance. Watford came straight back at the visitors and 3 minutes later were rewarded. . Neal Ardley curling home from a 25-yard free-kick.

5 minutes before the break and Watford led. Allan Nielsen's overhead effort fell to Micah Hyde who gladly tucked home from close range. Within a minute Palace equalised through a Danny Granville header. Then into injury and Mullins restored Palace's lead with a cool finish although question marks must be raised over the defending.

The final goal of the game came 2 minutes into the second half. Watford striker Helder Helgsuon left in acres of space to convert a Danny Webber cross.

All of this was marred by a shocking piece of officiating though. In the 77th minute, 17-year-old Wayne Routledge took on Paul Robinson and beat him. Robinson then attempted, but failed, to bring Routledge down - the youngster continued and went for goal. Amazingly referee Andy Hall issued a second yellow card to Routledge resulting in a red.