Ten-man Newcastle returned to the top of the Coca-Cola Championship with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Doncaster at St James Park.
Chris Hughton, who is expected to be confirmed as Newcastle's permanent manager next week, saw his side avoid a third straight defeat despite falling behind to Dean Shiel's 18th-minute strike.
Andrew Carroll levelled for the Magpies after 67 minutes before Martin Woods missed a penalty for Doncaster 11 minutes later.
Zurab Khizanishvili's dismissal five minutes from time appeared to have ended Newcastle's hopes of victory but Kevin Nolan popped up with the winner in stoppage time.
Cardiff are a point behind the leaders thanks to an entertaining 4-3 victory at Sheffield United.
Jay Bothroyd put the visitors ahead in the 41st minute, but United hit straight back through Darius Henderson.
Cardiff went ahead through Peter Whittingham's penalty, but Henderson pegged them back again two minutes into stoppage time.
Whittingham then completed his hat-trick with goals in the 61st and 86th minutes, making James Harper's last-minute strike nothing more than a consolation for the Blades.
West Brom slipped from top to third as they could only manage a goalless draw at Coventry.










Comment 3 - 22 of 22
HUGHTON..RANGER AND CARROL FROM THE START.
no thanks to that little argy p.r.ic.k. what a bloody waste of space.and that no hoper loanee.harewood ..come on houghton start picking ranger from the start you di.ck
Magpies back on top, For now!
We cannot ask for too much from this current squad... honestly, because they're not actually from the Ä Team, a mixture from the left-over and the Reserve Squad. But we must give them due credits for the current league position which we are in. What worries me, is can we maintain the current league position until after X'mas and beyond promotion back to the PL.
We are @#$% with a tiny squad depleted by injurys & suspensions yet we stand top of the league, what may I ask does this say about the Championship ?
I reckon any one of a dozen teams, maybe more could win promotion this season for what ? the dubious honour of fighting relagation the following season, I'm afraid that this is reality now fellow TOON fans....dejected Toon suporter
obersterfuhrer, Am glad we got the 3 points, no matter what the display our boys put out there, I'm just pointing out that if we want to get promoted then we need our boys to actually go out there and give us there all. Other wise what are they paid so much money for. We can't rely on luck every week and sadly yesterday was luck. On paper our squad is a decent one, they have skill and talent. But i don't see it translated on the pitch. Yesterday proves this.
At the end of the day i'm being realistic. Of course i want to see them win every match and score loads of goals, but it wont and isn't happening. I can only hope they start to find there feet. We still have a lot of games in front of us, so let's keep our heads up and think positively.
Tell ya what, ask a sunderland fan how they coped in the championship, they've had plenty of experience hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Richard C, in whatever football league you play, 3 points is what is counts in every games, duke.... Even if it was a $ hit piece of display.
Steve and Richard are demonstrating more passion than the ( wildly entertaining ) TOON TEAM did today. That's right. We Were sh i t. How bad would it have felt though if MICEY DONCASTER had left the city with 3 points? It could've been the case though. NO PROBLEM. NOLAN popped up and saved our sorry ar se ( S ) with a last gasp DOG'S DINNER.
ASHLEY. SHOW SOME CLASS. P I $$ OFF
Richard comment 13,
yeah i hear you and agree too. you hit the nail right on the head when you say atough league with teams fighting to get promoted. unfortunately i guess i see not enough passion and fight and teamwork from us. if we get 3 injuries im sure ill get a call to play. lol
steve, comment 11. Tell ya what mate, spot on. Certainly not our finest performance. Not by a long shot. And a lucky win. Positively though at least we got 3 points and west brom and middlesbrough only 1 between them. So for now that looks good for us at the top of the table.
Negatively, if we think were a promotion pushing side then we seriously need to get ourselves together. Cos if we are struggling now then what do you think it will be like IF we get promoted. We will be where Portsmouth are now, 10 games in and only 4 points.
The only thing i would disagree with is that the championship is harder than we give it credit. These boys have passion and determination. And unfortunately for us, we are the team they all want to beat.
RE com 1...I posted this comment after the Cardiff game. Why's it back on now? We were cr@p today but we still beat Doncaster and the cr@p referee. Ashley. Show some respect you piece of $ H I T and P I $$ OFF
I don't want to tempt fate, but if this is as hard a game as we're going to see this season then we might just be okay. Cardiff didn't really cause us that many problems so things are looking good. Shame about Alan Smith's dismissal though. TOON TOON TOON. EVERYBODY SAY WHY AYE WHY AYE
CANT SOME PEOPLE SEE THE RESULT FOR WHAT IS REALLY IS? WE WERE PLAYING "DONCASTER" JEESAZ DONCASTER? WE SCRAPED IT IN INJURY TIME? IF WE ARE A PROMOTION PUSHING SIDE THEN SURELY WE NEED TO BE SWEEPING THESE TEAMS ASIDE?
I SAID IT BEFORE AND ILL SAY IT AGAIN, WE REALLY ARE JUST A MESS STILL. WE HAVE ABOUT 12 PLAYERS IN THE SQUAD. A FAT BSTARD AT THE HELM. A MANAGER WHO HAS PROVEN IN THEPAST WHAT HE CAN DO. NOWT!!!.
OH BOY.
We are doing so well that the Telegraph reported that Ashley has put the price up after the deal with Moat was agreed. Now Moat is trying to deal with the new Ashley demands.
cANNIE LADS WELL DONE, .wILL SOON BE BACK IN THE THE PREMIERSHIP. fROM HARVEY AGED 11 (jOEY bARTON fAN!)
davisonmax, I think we are by the looks of it and besides, you know a hell of a lot more about this division than we ever will so I suppose we will have to bow down to your authority on life outside the Premiere.
micky mouse league, get over yourselves
were taking this league apart week by week the toons defo coming back up.did anybody see all the empty seats at scum derland v hull looks like even there sound as a pound tickets cant help fill the ground.toon toon black n white army
Great game. Even better result. Shame that Smith got red carded, can`t afford to have players missing with such a small squad.
Blackpool Wednesday night should be another 3 pointer.
fan fecking tastic
very hard to pick a motm - every single 1 even the subs played with passion & desire - for the whole game each & every 1 played as a team/unit defence midfield forwards all contributed - the sending off was harsh, some of the decisions woeful & yes there should've been a penalty against us so we even had luck. we are top of the league & rightly deerve it
100% agree Shaun what a hard fought game, bit pis sed off with smithys red but never mind we can always rely on Fabricio Coloccini STRIKER OF THE MONTH PMSL, where did that come from!! Anyway, well done Lads keep it up!!
BW 4EVA
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