Cardiff’s point at Doncaster shouldn’t have come as a surprise – as I pointed out last week the Bluebirds have a good record at Donny – but Middlesbrough chose last weekend to lose at home to Burnley for the first time in almost 30 years. Southampton and West Ham both won on the road and so in the space of an hour and a half the situation was back to almost exactly the same as it was a fortnight ago.

At the bottom of the table all six teams failed to win – Ipswich moved above Bristol City, but despite establishing a two goal lead over Blackpool the Tractor Boys failed to pick up three points. The biggest losers last weekend weren’t Millwall – although the dismissals of Adam Dunne and Shane Lowry during a 6-0 hammering by Birmingham isn’t exactly a contender for performance of the week – but Coventry City. The Sky Blues not only lost 1-0 at Pride Park, but Lukas Jutkiewicz joined Middlesbrough: the 22 year old striker was responsible for scoring nine of Coventry’s 20 league goals this season and his departure leaves a gap that may not be filled anytime soon.

The FA Cup replays took place earlier in the week: it was the turn of Leicester turn to stop Nottingham Forest from scoring and a hat-trick from Jermaine Beckford ensured that the Foxes will entertain Swindon at the King Power Stadium next weekend. Millwall took their frustrations out on Dagenham & Redbridge with three goals from Darius Henderson and a brace from Harry Kane and will play Southampton. Birmingham became the only Championship side to defeat a Premier League team in the cup so far this when a goal from Wade Elliott at Molineux saw the Blues into the fourth round. Brighton had to come from behind at the Racecourse Ground to beat Wrexham on penalties and will have a lucrative fourth round tie against Newcastle.

There are three candidates for game of the week this weekend: Doncaster visit Bristol City in the only game between teams in the bottom six and a win for either side could prove invaluable in the long term as current form indicates that Nottingham Forest won’t get anything at West Ham. So the choice this week is the potential playoff matchup between Reading at Hull at the Madjeski Stadium.

As you might expect from clubs in fifth and sixth place, neither club has a particularly strong record against the other clubs competing for promotion.  Despite an inconsistent start – as recently as the end of November they were in the bottom half of the table – Reading have only lost one of their last ten league games at home (to Cardiff) whereas Hull have lost at both Middlesbrough and Southampton in the last seven weeks. The Tigers don’t have a particularly good record in Berkshire, having only won twice in the ten visits to Reading since England won the World Cup and this looks like a difficult game for them, especially as Reading have won four consecutive games at the mad house and Hull haven’t been scoring much away from the KC.

Last game of the week is one the rare televised Monday night games outings for Championship teams when Leicester travel to St. Mary’s to take on the leaders (Sky Sports 1, 7:45pm) . If West Ham can pick up at least a point against Forest – which seems highly likely – than Southampton will have to make sure they don’t lose to Leicester. That outcome is also highly likely as this is yet another one of those games where history is favours one team. Leicester have failed to score in five of their last six games at either St. Mary’s or The Dell and have only won once on the South Coast since 1970.

Apart from Lukas Jutkiewicz’ move to Middlesbrough, there hasn’t been a great deal of business in the transfer market. Norwich have agreed terms with Leeds captain Johnny Howson and Ben Mee has joined Burnley from Manchester City but the two eye catching deals involve a player with no club and an ex-manager. Kelvin Etuhu – jailed for six months following a conviction for assault last year – has joined Portsmouth, while former Doncaster boss Sean O’Driscoll has joined Nottingham Forest as first team coach: if Forest continue their current form, it’s not inconceivable that O’Driscoll may find himself back in management sooner rather than later.

I’ll be back early next week with a round up of this weekend’s games and a preview of the second leg of the Carling Cup semi final. I’m also toying with the idea of having a full scale rant about a certain Premier League manager’s frankly ignorant ideas about having B teams from the Prem playing in the Championship, which I might save for next weekend…

We’re now past the half way stage in this season’s nPower Championship and results over the Christmas break have set up what looks as if it could be an exciting conclusion to this season’s campaign.

At the top, the clear winners over Christmas were Cardiff and Reading, both of whom have clearly put their playoff misery behind them. The Bluebirds are now only two points behind Southampton and West Ham and although Reading’s festive season ended with a defeat at the Cardiff City stadium the Royals are now back in the top five for the first time since August.

The holidays couldn’t have gone any worse for Southampton and Hull. The leaders could only pick up three points from the nine available and lost their undefeated home record when a goal from Stephen Pearson gave Bristol City a surprise win at St. Mary’s and Southampton’s first home defeat in the league since losing to Brentford in December 2010. Apart from Ipswich – who I’ll be discussing in a moment – Hull were the only side not to record a win in their last three games and lost all three by a single goal. A few more poor results from the Tigers could see them slide dramatically down the table: they’ve already lost ten games this season.

However, Derby were clearly at the top of Santa’s Christmas list, having won all three of their games – an especially impressive feat as the teams they faced were fellow competitors for the playoff positions. The Rams are currently two points away from the top six and Nigel Clough’s team seem to have got over their poor form in November, when they only picked up one point.

At the bottom, Bristol City and Coventry picked up six points in three games but even that feat was something of a false dawn for the Sky Blues, who went back to the bottom of the table after losing to West Ham. They’re now three points behind Doncaster, seven points from safety and face a real battle to avoid dropping back into the third tier for the first time since 1964. Follow strugglers Nottingham Forest ended their goal drought when Marcus Tudgay opened the scoring after five minutes in their 3-1 win at Ipswich, but the Tractor Boys only picked up one point in their three games and could be sucked into a relegation battle.

Ipswich have been terrible recently – nine defeats in twelve games have seen them drop from sixth in mid October to 20th going into next week’s game at Birmingham City. The East Anglian side have conceded the most goals in the Championship so far this season (only Doncaster have a worse away defensive record) and it looks as if their form at Portman Road will be crucial over the next month: Cardiff, Middlesbrough and West Ham all have to travel to East Anglia.

For at least one weekend all the Championship clubs can put the league aside: the third round of the FA Cup takes place this weekend. Although I’ve pointed out more than once that the chances of a second tier club winning the competition are remote, it’s also worth pointing out that Championship clubs have reached the quarter finals at least in each of the last five seasons.

Blackpool, Watford, Middlesbrough, Brighton & Reading seem to have the best chances of making it to the fourth round, while Burnley, Cardiff, Leeds and Portsmouth already look as if they’re the teams that are going to be concentrating on the league for the rest of the season.

Three games involving Championship sides are being televised, starting with Birmingham v Wolves (ESPN Saturday 12:30pm) – these two were playing in the Premier League last season, but both were in the second tier when they last last met in the cup sixteen years ago. On that occasion Wolves won the replay after a draw at St. Andrew’s, which looks like it could happen again as this game looks as it if could be short of goals.

Sunday lunchtime’s game between Peterborough and Sunderland (ITV Sunday 1:30pm) is only the third meeting between these two sides at London Road in all competitions, but the Posh will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the first time they ever played Sunderland: a 7-1 defeat in the fourth round of the cup at Roker Park in 1967. That scoreline is unlikely to be repeated, but I’d not be surprised if there are goals in this one: the hosts have only failed to score in one home league game this season but have also only kept one home clean sheet in the Championship in 2011/12.

The last game of the round is also the final game on TV: Leeds drew with Arsenal at the Emirates in last year’s competition before losing the replay at Elland Road so Monday evening’s game  (ESPN Monday 7:45pm) gives the Yorkshire side a chance of revenge. Thanks to the Leeds fans it should be a good atmosphere at the Library, but there are a couple of big problems for Leeds if they want to progress: they haven’t won away since November and it looks increasingly likely that they’ll have to contend with the second coming of Thierry Henry.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with a roundup of the notable stories from the FA Cup plus a preview of the Carling Cup semi final first leg between Crystal Palace and Cardiff City and any transfer news that’s worth printing.

Seven clubs will be playing Premier League sides with half of them having home ties, although it seems odd writing about Burnley’s trip to Norwich as it was only last season that this would have been a league game. Barnley’s game against Swansea at Oakwell could be the best chance of an ‘upset’ even though once again this was league fixture in 2010/11. At the other end of the telescope, Portsmouth have to visit Chelsea in a repeat of the 2010 final but given Pompey’s poor away form I’d be surprised if that tie finished with a 1-0 scoreline this time round.

The Championship is guaranteed at least four clubs in the fourth round: Nottingham Forest play Leicester City, Southampton travel to Coventry, Derby entertain Crystal Palace and Hull take on Ipswich at the KC Stadium. That leaves nine clubs playing opposition below the Championship, although at the moment only Brighton (who will be playing Wrexham in the first FA Cup tie at the Amex Stadium) are the only club playing opposition outside the football league. If Fleetwood Town beat Yeovil in next Tuesday’s replay then Blackpool will have to make the seven mile trip north to visit the Trawlermen.

The FA Cup ties don’t take place until next month and so it’s back to league action – and there were some real coupon busters last weekend. Billy Sharp scored the only goal of the game as Doncaster Rovers beat Southampton and Burnley came from behind to beat West Ham at Upton Park for the first time since 1973. Those results meant that the goal that Kenny Miller scored for Cardiff against Birmingham on Sunday lunchtime was very significant: the Bluebirds could overtake West Ham this weekend but more of that later. Middlesbrough needed some questionable referring at Ashton Gate to record their sixth win away from home this season, while Hull’s two wins in the space of a week means they’re back in the top six.

At the bottom of the table, Coventry’s defeat at Portsmouth and Doncaster’s surprise win means that Sky Blues fans could be facing a very miserable Christmas as their team is now rock bottom. Nottingham Forest  join them in the bottom three – since Steve Cotterill took over in mid October, Forest have lost five of their nine league games and have failed to score in their last three.

There are two televised games this weekend: the first is between Southampton v Blackpool (Sky Sports 2, 12:45pm) both of whom were outside the Championship last season but have made good starts in 2011/12. Although the Tangerines won the last time these two met in the league, it’s not been a happy hunting ground for them over the years and considering Saints impressive home record Ian Holloway’s side could struggle at St. Mary’s.

Although there’s no outstanding candidate for game of the week, there are a couple of 3:00pm kick offs that could be worth keeping an eye on as they involve teams at either end of the table. If Cardiff City win at the New Den and West Ham lose at Reading, the Bluebirds will move into the second automatic promotion spot – although it’s a big if as the Welsh club haven’t won at Millwall since September 1982 and the last four league games between the sides in South London have ended all square.

Hull travel to the Ricoh Arena having lost two of their last three away games but there are some signs that caretaker manager Nicky Barmby has removed the ‘defence first’ mentality that characterised the Tigers under Nigel Pearson. To make matters even worse for the hosts, they’re still far too reliant on Lukas Jutkiewicz for goals: rumours are beginning to circulate that Coventry’s leading scorer could be on the way to Southampton during the transfer window – a move that would ensure the short term financial future of the club but would appear to cast doubts over their future as a Championship team.

The teatime game is Barnsley v Ipswich (Sky Sports 2, 5:20pm) – under the management of former Rochdale boss Keith Hill the Tykes have quietly crept up the table and are now just three points off the playoff positions. There are no household names in the Barnsley side, but when you’ve got a promising young goalscoring defender like Jacob Butterfield playing behind Craig Davies and Ricardo Vaz Te then you probably don’t need them. I wasn’t very complimentary about the Tractor Boys last week and despite taking the lead against Watford on Saturday thanks to Keith Andrews, two goals in four minutes meant a seventh consecutive defeat for Paul Jewel’s side, who are now only outside the bottom three on goal difference.

The winners of manager of the month and player of the month awards for November were announced on Friday afternoon and although I don’t normally mention them, under the circumstances I think it’s worth highlighting that Billy Sharp of Doncaster Rovers won the award for player of the month.  In case anyone’s forgotten Sharp’s story, you can read it here: he deserves an award – however inconsequential – after the terrible few weeks he’s been through.

If you believe the bookies then only Cardiff City of our two remaining representatives have much chance of reaching the semi finals. The last time the Bluebirds met Blackburn Rovers in South Wales was in the FA Cup at Ninian Park in January 2005; the game finished 1-1 and Rovers won the replay at Ewood Park. However, poor form in the Premier League, fan unrest surrounding the manager and the board and the prospect of appearing in these posts next season mean that if Cardiff win it could be the last straw at Blackburn.

At the weekend, Bristol City’s victory over Southampton showed exactly how competitive and surprising the football league is, both Burnley and Reading came from behind to win away from home and Leeds managed to go up the table despite losing to Barnsley at Elland Road.

Overall, the gaps at the top and bottom have closed up: West Ham could overtake Southampton if results go the right way tonight, while the bottom half of the table could be unrecognisable by Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, we also had plastic bottles thrown on to the pitch at Selhurst Park during the South London derby and the entire weekend was overshadowed by Gary Speed’s untimely death. Speed began his short managerial career in the Championship with Sheffield United last season, but was at Bramhall Lane for less than two months before being appointed as Wales manager.

Game of the evening in the league is Middlesbrough against West Ham at the Riverside, but a quick look at the form book is inconclusive other than suggesting that a stalemate is highly likely – even though the Hammers have only won one of their last ten trips to Teeside.

Once again though, it’s the bottom of the table where the situation is most fluid. Coventry and Doncaster both lost on Saturday and are now six points behind Bristol City and seven points from safety: both clubs have one fewer point than Preston did at this stage last season and we all know how that turned out.

Doncaster travel to Millwall in their first away game against a team in the current bottom six: the Lions have already beaten both Coventry and Nottingham Forest at the New Den this season and even though they’re currently in the middle of the roughest patch of form since they were promoted, Kenny Jackett’s side don’t look as if they’ll lose this one.

The most intriguing game at the wrong end of the table is Bristol City’s trip to Watford: the Robins have won three of their last four trips to Vicarage Road and could move out of the bottom three with a win. Watford’s precarious position is based on their away form and although they’ve won three on the bounce at home and seem to have tightened up defensively in recent games, it’s probably the worst time for them to run into tonight’s opponents.

Tomorrow night Crystal Palace will be attempting the seemingly impossible at Old Trafford in the Carling Cup: they’ve not beaten Manchester United since December 1989, they haven’t scored an away goal since the end of last month and haven’t scored a goal in any competition since Jermain Easter’s penalty against Southampton in the Carling Cup.

I’ll be back later in the week with a roundup of the midweek action, which starts on Friday night when Palace – who’ll probably be exhausted by then – play Derby.

Game of the day is Bristol City v Southampton: at first glance this looks like an uneven contest but a look at the form tables shows that this one could be far tighter than expected. Obviously both sides need to win this for different reasons: Southampton can increase their lead at the top, but but City – who have yet to lose at home to any of the top six – will be motivated by the prospect of being able to move out of the relegation zone if they win and other results go their way.

Whatever happens, 0-0 is unlikely: it’s significant that Nicky Maynard has started scoring for the hosts since Derek McInnes took over. Saints’ Rickie Lambert will be a stern test for the Robins defence but he might well have some extra motivation: he joined Southampton from Bristol Rovers in 2009.

There are a couple of other interesting games this weekend: Hull against Burnley features two sides apparently going in opposite directions. Nick Barmby’s first win as a manager last weekend pushed the Tigers into the playoff spots, while Eddie Howe’s side have now lost four consecutive games after Chris Burke’s late winner at St. Andrews bagged all the points for Birmingham City on Tuesday night.

However, this is another match where the outcome isn’t necessarily as cut and dried as might be expected. The Clarets have won their last two trips to Hull (including a 4-1 win when both teams were in the Premiership) and Hull’s home form has been inconsistent this season. There never seem to be many goals at the KC Stadium and although Burnley are struggling they’ve scored in all but two of their away games this season and could easily nick a point.

In the only game between teams in the bottom six, Doncaster entertain Watford at the Keepmoat in one of those games that looks terrible on paper but could actually be very competitive: in case you’re wondering how bad Donny’s home form is, they’ve only won 2 of their last 20 games at home and they’ve not scored more than one goal in a game since New Year’s Day. Watford’s away form is just as bad: three wins since January and an inability to score away from home – the Hornets have been shut out in three of their last four away games and current top scorer Marvin Sordell hasn’t scored in an away game since August.

Today’s final game on sees Derby travel to West Ham (5:20pm, Sky Sports 2): historically this has been a game that West Ham don’t usually lose, but with five draws in the last ten league meetings at Upton Park between these two it’s not one you can say that West Ham should win either. The Rams haven’t won an away game since their controversial win at Nottingham Forest in mid September and although they’re clearly a different team from last season their recent form indicates that early season optimism may gradually turn into mid table reality.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with to take a look at what happened this afternoon and to take a look at the midweek games – which include Middlesbrough v West Ham and Southampton v Hull.

Blackpool had to come from behind twice at Middlesbrough; Scott McDonald scored both goals for the hosts but both of the Tangerines’ equalisers came within five minutes of Tony Mowbray’s side taking the lead.

However the most significant games last weekend were at the bottom of the table. On Saturday, Coventry’s defeat at home to West Ham combined with Doncaster’s reverse in the Yorkshire Derby at Oakwell mean that both sides are now in serious danger of coming adrift at the bottom. The situation worsened for the bottom two when two goals from Nicky Maynard helped Bristol City win at Millwall at The New Den: the Robins are now only two points away from safety.

Although there’s the usual danger of tonight’s games being overshadowed by the Champions League, they have implications for both ends of the table. Burnley – who lost at home to Leeds on Saturday – travel to Birmingham City and Cardiff hopefully won’t get stick in traffic when they make the often nightmarish weekday trip from South Wales to Coventry.

Birmingham’s game – rescheduled due to the demands of the Europa League -  is one of those they need to win if they’re going to challenge for promotion. The Bluea are unbeaten at St Andrew’s and three points would put them just outside the promotion places with two games still in hand. Burnley are confirming to a pattern away from Turf Moor – win one, lose one – in which case they may be in for their first win at Birmingham since April 2007.

Even though Coventry have not got the greatest home record at the Ricoh Arena, there’s a chance that the hosts might spring a surprise tonight: the Sky Blues have not lost four consecutive home games in the league for almost seven years. The only problem – and it’s a big one -  is that Cardiff have only lost two of the last ten meetings between the clubs in the Midlands.

I’ll be back with a preview of the weekend’s action on Friday, in the meantime have a good week.

At the start of the month I mentioned that Leicester City seem to be in the habit of making ‘vanity’ appointments with managerial appointments that seemed to be based increasing the perception of the Foxes as a big club rather than on the actual record of the appointee. So the reappointment of Nigel Pearson this week is a weird one: presumably Pearson thought he had a chance of getting Hull City back to the Premier Division when he left the King Power Stadium in the summer of 2010, but the grass at the KC Stadium can’t have been as green as he thought.

Judging on this season’s form, it’s a sideways move for Pearson. Leicester are two points behind Hull but neither side look currently capable of challenging for automatic promotion: the Tigers don’t score enough goals while the Foxes concede too many.

Pearson’s move to Leicester led to Nicky Barmby being appointed caretaker manager at Hull, but the other permanent appointment that was made recently shows more imagination. Portsmouth appointed former Preston and West Brom midfielder Michael Appleton as manager: to say that Appleton is driven is an understatement – having been forced to retire due to a botched operation on a knee injury at the age of 27, he’s spent most of the last decade building a coaching career and was at WBA at the same time as Bristol City manager Derek McInnes.

Pearson, Barmby and Appleton all have different challenges this weekend: on Saturday Hull travel to Derby, Watford play Portsmouth at Vicarage Road and Leicester entertain Crystal Palace on Sunday.

However, I’m looking at other games this weekend to provide the talking points. Leeds visit Burnley on Saturday lunchtime (BBC2, 12:45pm) having only lost twice in their last ten games at Turf Moor while the Clarets have lost both of their last two games by 3-1; before the season began I wondered about Eddie Howe would do over the course of a full season and if Burnley lose again he may find himself under a great deal of pressure.

The game of the week is Middlesbrough v Blackpool – although this is only the third time they’ve met in the league since 1987, this looks like a clash that could tell us a lot about the prospects of these sides over the next six months. Boro haven’t entertained any of the current top six teams at the Riverside, while Blackpool earned a point at Crystal Palace but were comprehensively beaten at West Ham last month. Even with Marvin Emnes and Kevin Phillips on the pitch this looks as if it could be a low scoring game with a point being the best the Tangerines can hope for.

There are a couple of other games that will have an impact at both ends of the table: it’s not hard to see why West Ham are favourites at Coventry as the Hammers have only lost once away from home this season while The Sky Blues have only won five of their last 20 Championship games at the Ricoh Arena. The Hammers have only conceded a ridiculous four goals away from home this season, so if they can shut down Lukas Jutkiewicz (who has scored six of Coventry’s 13 league goals this season) then the job’s half done.

Game of the day in South Yorkshire is Barnsley v Doncaster, which is a game that the visitors have had the upper hand in recently: Rovers have won three of the five league meetings at Oakwell this century, although having won at Ipswich a few weeks ago wasn’t a good sign as Donny have lost both of their subsequent away games following an away win.

The only other televised game this weekend is Millwall v Bristol City (Sky Sports 1, 1:15pm), which is an interesting choice of appetiser for Chelsea v Liverpool. The hosts are still formidable at home (only three defeats in their last twenty Championship games at The New Den) and Darius Henderson has taken over from Steve Morison as leading goalscorer but the Robins have clearly benefitted from a change in manager and are no longer the pushovers they were earlier in the season.

There are a couple of games next Tuesday night, but I’ll take a look at them at the beginning of next week as well as rounding up this weekend’s action.

It’ll be interesting to see if – unlike last season – any of the other promotion candidates can mount a credible challenge for the title. West Ham were heavily fancied to beat Bristol City on Tuesday night but failed to do so but along with Cardiff winning convincingly at Derby the real eyebrow raiser was Leeds’ worst home defeat for three decades – United were already a goal down to Blackpool when Tom Lees was sent off and former ‘pool goalkeeper Paul Rachubka was substituted at half time having been made the scapegoat for Leeds’ woes by their fans. A hat trick from Jonjo Shelvey and a brace from Lomana Lua Lua means that Blackpool are now within striking distance of the playoffs while Leeds drop back to tenth.

Five of the twelve games this weekend will have an impact on both ends of the table and although there’ll be no change in the bottom three, there has been some movement within that group. Despite being the only club in the competition without a home win, Bristol City will be hoping to continue their improvement under new boss Derek McInnes even though there’s no guarantee that they’ll beat Burnley.

On paper Coventry have the hardest task facing the clubs in the drop zone this weekend when Southampton travel to the Ricoh Arena, but the leaders have only won one of their last ten visits to Warwickshire and haven’t picked up maximum points on their travels since winning at Ipswich in mid August. The Sky Blues aren’t terrible at home – although this is their first game against a team in the current top six – but really need to start winning games if they’re to escape the bottom three.

The other game featuring two sides from the bottom six will see Steve Cotterill return to Fratton Park for the first time since he left Portsmouth and both clubs will be looking to avoid defeat. Goals could be at a premium on the South Coast and with Nottingham Forest apparently being unable to keep clean sheets on the road, their porous defence could prove a stumbling block to any chance of success in Hampshire.

There are two games between the top six on Saturday afternoon: rather than unneccesarily over complicate the situation at the top of the table, it’s entirely possible that West Ham could be out of the automatic promotion places on Saturday evening yet only Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough can overtake them. Palace travel down the M4 to Cardiff City, but although The Bluebirds haven’t lost at home to Palace since 2004 they’ve only won two of the six meetings between the clubs in South Wales since then. Middlesbrough entertain Watford on Saturday teatime in the only televised game this weekend (Sky Sports 2, 5:20pm) but although Boro haven’t lost at the Riverside since April they’ve only won twice at home this season and Watford will be encouraged by the points earned by Coventry and Portsmouth on Teeside this season.

If the Hammers want to remain in second spot they’ll need to do something in this weekend’s game of the week they’ve they’ve been unable to do since September 1954: win at Hull City. Admittedly these sides only met four times in the league over the last two decades and although Sam Allardyce’s side have only lost once on their travels this season, this game looks as if it’s going to be a tight, low scoring affair and it’s also worth remembering that West Ham have yet to record a victory away to a team in the current top six.

Finally this week, it’s difficult to remain detached about the Championship when we’re lucky to have a player like Billy Sharp of Doncaster Rovers playing in it. His two day old son died on Saturday but on Monday he rang Rovers’ manager Dean Saunders to ask if he could play against Middlesbrough during the week; Sharp opened the scoring after 14 minutes and revealed a t-shirt that simply said ‘That’s for you son.’

At the other end of the table Bristol City are four points from safety – the Robins were one of four sides who failed to pick up any points from the six available in the last two games, but will have a new manager in place before Sunday’s game with Birmingham City. Former WBA and Millwall midfielder Derek McInnes took over at Ashton Gate on Wednesday after two years as manager of Scottish Premier League side St. Johnstone; as we mentioned last week, Nottingham Forest appointed Steve Cotterill as manager, which leaves Portsmouth as the only club needing a to make an appointment.

It was a good week for both Peterborough and Crystal Palace, who won both beat Bristol City on their way to achieving maximum points. The Posh have maintained the type of form that earned them promotion from League 1 last season: despite having failed to keep a single clean sheet in the league so far, Darren Ferguson’s side have only failed to score once and only Southampton have scored more goals this season – which makes Ferguson’s decision to sell Craig Mackail-Smith to Brighton look like a very astute piece of business indeed. This weekend’s games begin when Leeds travel to London Road for only the second league meeting between the clubs and it looks like a game that won’t finish 0-0.

It was a bad week for Doncaster, Watford and Burnley all of whom emulated Bristol City’s inability to pick up a single point. Donny’s mini revival under Dean Saunders seems to have hit the skids following consecutive defeats while Watford have failed to score in seven of their twelve games this season and haven’t scored at all since Craig Forsyth scored the winner against Millwall at the end of September. Whilst we weren’t sold on either Doncaster or Watford before the season started, Burnley’s current difficulties aren’t immediately obvious until you realise that they have only won five of their last fifteen games at Turf Moor and are another side currently having trouble scoring: if you can stop Charlie Austin scoring you’ve effectively stopped Burnley.

There are two games between the top six on Saturday afternoon. Derby travel to Middlesbrough: the last time the Rams picked up a point on Teeside was in January 2000 and Boro have won the last five meetings at home since then. However, despite being unbeaten at the Riverside this season, the hosts last home win was back in August and there are signs that their impressive start could be on the rocks: they’ve failed to score in four of their last five games and – like Burnley – are over reliant on one player (Marvin Emnes) to provide the goals.

Game of the week is between two clubs that have shown significant improvement this season. Whatever changes Paul Jewell introduced after Ipswich were thrashed 7-1 at Peterborough in August seem to have worked: they’ve only lost once in the eight games since and have won at West Ham and drawn at Cardiff in that spell. Crystal Palace’s resurgence is down to their metamorphosis away from Selhurst Park. The Eagles have already won more away games this season than they did in 2010/11 – including victories at Brighton and Hull – but still look as if they’re a work in progress rather than genuine promotion candidates.

The last game on Saturday is Reading versus Southampton (Sky Sports 2, 5:20), but this weekend’s round of matches continues until Monday. Birmingham have to play two games in four days (at Bristol City on Sunday and at home to Leeds on Wednesday) and with West Ham’s trip to Brighton on Monday (Sky Sports 1, 7:45pm) coming the day before the Carling Cup ties between Championship teams it’s almost as busy as Christmas.

With two guaranteed qualifiers for the last eight in the Carling Cup the Championship is well represented but it’s difficult to see any of the four teams left in the competition getting any further. Only Southampton have ever reached the final (in 1979); Burnley, Crystal Palace and Cardiff have all reached the semi finals before, but have been knocked out every time they’ve reached that stage so once again it looks as if Championship clubs might have to be content with being knocked out before the final by a Premier League club. We’ll see.

This weekend sees the last action in the Championship for a couple of weeks due to the international break: after most clubs played two league games in the past seven days, there are some signs that this season’s competition might be much tighter than 2010/11.

At the top, Southampton, Middlesbrough and Derby are all level on points: the latter pair were undefeated over the course of the last week although Boro seem to have gone into ’safety first’ mode at the Riverside with goalless draws against Ipswich & Leicester. Possibly the most significant result of the season so far came at the Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday night, when the hosts beat Southampton 2-1 in the first game between the current top six in 2011/12: veteran Scottish striker Kenny Miller scored both goals for the Bluebirds.

With only three points separating the current crop of Premier League hopefuls, it’s a similar story at bottom of the table for the clubs hoping to avoid League 1 next August. Only a win separates Doncaster from Birmingham, although to be fair to the Blues they have two games in hand. The managerial change at the Keepmoat Stadium seems to have done the trick as Donny were one of six clubs that picked up four points from a possible six in the last seven days; exactly how much they’ve improved should be indicated when they travel to Peterborough on Saturday. Burnley also did well last week: the Clarets battered Nottingham Forest 5-1 on Tuesday night, a win that put Forest manager Steve McClaren under even more pressure.

There’s little doubt about the team of the week. That accolade must surely go to Reading, who were two goals down after an hour at Ashton Gate on Tuesday night but managed to win the game with an injury time goal from French striker Mathieu Manset. The result propelled the Royals into mid table but left Bristol City without a home win this season: Robins’ manager Keith Millen isn’t as much of a household name as Steve McClaren, but the bookies have them as clear favourites to be the next managers to join Sean O’Driscoll at the allotments.

There are a couple of interesting games on Saturday: Middlesbrough defend their 100% away record at Reading while Watford will be trying to make a dent in Southampton’s perfect record at St. Mary’s – the Hornets have won the last three league games there by an aggregate of 9-1!

Leicester and Derby battle it out on Sky Sports 2 in the tea time kick off (5:20pm ) but the last time the Rams were successful at Leicester was in a Premier League game at Filbert Street almost ten years ago, when Georgi Kinkladze was amongst the scorers in a 3-0 win. Nigel Clough’s side seems to have turned something of a corner this season and it’s not hard to see why: of the starting eleven against Barnsley on Tuesday only John Brayford and Jamie Ward played against Reading in the final game of last season.

However, game of the week is the Sunday afternoon match between Nottingham Forest v Birmingham City. The mildest way of describing how these teams have performed so far is that they’ve been inconsistent: the Blues are in a weird position for all kinds of reasons (new manager following relegation, the novelty of a Europa League campaign and multiple issues with their chairman) and are probably at their best at home. Forest are normally slow starters but have regressed to the point where Steve McClaren described his team as ‘rubbish’ after the defeat at Burnley during the week. The bad news for Birmingham is that they’ve only won one of their last ten trips to the City Ground, they’re struggling away from home and even though they came from behind to beat Maribor in Thursday’s Europa League game they’ve lost the last two away games immediately after travelling back from their European adventures.

Whether or not Forest can capitalise upon that record is another matter altogether.