It’s the fourth round of the FA Cup this weekend and there are ten Championship clubs left in the tournament, but only one guaranteed spot in the fifth round. There are also two league games taking place this weekend and we’ll come to them later.

From a Championship perspective, the pick of the ties is this evening’s meeting between Watford and Spurs (7:45pm, ESPN) although it’s worth pointing out that The Hornets have never beaten Spurs in a cup competition and have only beaten Tottenham twice in 12 games at Vicarage Road. Having said that, despite their less than impressive league position at the moment, Watford have only lost two of their last ten home games and with the Premier League club having an injury crisis as well as a manager in the dock at the moment, the game could make very interesting viewing.

The rest of the cup ties this weekend are a mixed bag: arguably the biggest chance of an upset is at Pride Park, where Derby entertain Stoke City. In terms of upsets being caused against Championship sides, Birmingham make the trip to Sheffield United in a game that looks like anything but a straightforward and both Leicester and Hull will have to be at their best when Swindon Town and Crawley visit.

The only all Championship tie would normally be a candidate for game of the week: Southampton haven’t been at their best away from home recently (two wins in the last ten) and so the last place the Saints would probably want to visit at the moment is Millwall, who seem to have rediscovered the art of scoring goals recently.

However, once again this is one of those games where the away side has dominated the home team in recent meetings: Millwall have only won once in the last ten meetings between the clubs in all competitions in South London and you’ve got to back almost three and half decades to find the last time the Lions beat the visitors at home.

The other two televised games follow the same pattern as those of the Third Round. Newcastle haven’t played at Brighton (5:15pm, ESPN) for almost 20 years – and the last time Brighton played Newcastle in the Cup was in 1982/83, when the Sussex club reached the final and were beaten by Manchester United in a replay following the ‘…and Smith must score’ game. Despite having been knocked out of the African Cup of Nations, Newcastle will be without Senegalese strikers Papis Cisse and Demba Ba for the game.

ITV aren’t well known for changing what appears to be a winning formula and their coverage of the FA Cup seems to be evolving into ‘Sunderland v Championship club’ : Peterborough were the Mackems victims in the last round and this time they’re playing Middlesbrough (ITV1, 1:30pm). It’s been a while since they met in a Cup competition  when they weren’t in the same division, but it’s even longer ago since they met in the FA Cup at Sunderland: January 1934 to be precise, when Sunderland progressed to the Fourth Round after winning a replay at Ayresome Park.

There’s a full league programme on Tuesday night, but four clubs decided to bring forward their games to Saturday afternoon, which gives us a chance to take a look at two clubs that we’ve not mentioned recently. Game of the day in the league is Peterborough v Portsmouth: only two points separate them at the moment, but although Pompey have maintained their somewhat schizophrenic form this season (playoff material at home, bound for League 1 away), The Posh dropped out of the top ten in November and have only recorded two wins in their last ten games, so this is the type of game that could tell us how the rest of the season might pan out for these clubs over the rest of the season. Pompey were rocked by Tuesday’s news that they face a winding up order and could face administration – which is something  they’ll desperately want to avoid – a ten point deduction would automatically send them to the bottom of the  table.

With less than a week to go on the transfer deadline there’s still not been a great deal of activity, although Reading – who face Bristol City in the only other league game tomorrow have been in the middle of it. The Royals have signed Tomasz Cywka on a free transfer from Derby and Jason Roberts from Blackburn Rovers, but apart from some loan moves that’s been about it this week. However, by the time I preview Tuesday’s matches there may be news on more moves – including a possible conclusion to the Nicky Maynard saga.

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…

The fourth round will in all likelihood weed out even more Championship sides, with three clubs (Middlesbrough, Derby and Watford) facing Premier League opposition, leaving only Hull and Blackpool looking reasonable chances for progress to the fifth round.

Of the four sides facing replays, only Birmingham City emerged with any real credit having held Wolves to a draw in the Saturday lunchtime kick off. Millwall failed to score away from home again (this time at Dagenham & Redbridge) and despite taking the lead Brighton were held at home by Wrexham. None of the clubs with unresolved third round games have easy looking ties in the next round if they win their replays – neither Nottingham Forest or Leicester will fancy a visit from Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon, who knocked out Wigan at the Country Ground on Saturday.

Four clubs were knocked out by opposition from Leagues 1 and 2, although they can all make the excuse that they’ll be concentrating on the league. Reading – who’ve reached the quarter finals in the last two seasons – lost to Stevenage, who the Royals beat last year. West Ham lost to a late goal at Hillsborough: Sheffield Wednesday have now knocked out Championship teams out of the cup in the third round in consecutive seasons without conceding a goal. Wednesday’s victims last season – Bristol City – lost at Crawley and Doncaster lost at home to Notts County: both of those last two games could be League 1 matches next season.

At least the Championship is guaranteed a place at the Carling Cup final at Wembley at the end of February, so hopefully Crystal Palace and Cardiff can provide two games to remember. It’s only really over the last few seasons that Cardiff have reversed a long term trend of performing badly at Selhurst Park: even though the Bluebirds lost their last visit in the league (to a single goal from South African international Kagiko Dikgacoi last March), they’ve won three of their last six meetings in South London. The only other time these sides have met in this competition was in September 1969, when Palace won 3-1: the hosts went on to win seven of the next ten meetings between them.

Looking at more recent form, a couple of things stand out: Palace will have to score at least two goals to win. The Eagles haven’t done that since mid October in the league, but they’ve managed it in every round of this season’s Carling Cup including the brace that beat Manchester United in the last round. The other stat that is worth remembering is that there’s not been a draw between these two in South London since December 1984 and both Palace (at home) and Cardiff (away) have been involved in a lot of undecided games recently: Cardiff’s only other away game in the Carling Cup was a draw at Oxford United back in August and the Bluebirds only won on penalties at the Kassam Stadium.

There hasn’t really been much to report in the transfer market, although the rumour mill is grinding out the usual stories (most of which involve anyone that’s ever scored a goal in the Championship being linked with Leicester), so the only piece of news worth mentioning is that despite overseeing three consecutive league defeats, Nick Barmby has been appointed as permanent manager of Hull City.

I’ll be back on Friday afternoon with a recap of tonight’s game plus a look forward to the action at the 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.

It would be extremely foolish to write Brian McDermott’s side off – they’ve drawn all three of their cup games at City over the years and with the hosts having drawn with both Leicester and Notts County in earlier in the competition, a Manchester City win isn’t as straightforward as it first appears.

Returning to the Championship, having only been out of top spot twice since the season began, QPR’s apparently inevitable path to the Premier League continued after a 2-0 win over Ipswich Town. However, with almost three quarters of the season gone, it might be worth looking at what might happen between now and the end of the season.

Not surprisingly, QPR are the odds on favourites to win the Championship; although it’s still possible that Rangers can be overtaken, there have been countless opportunities for their rivals to catch them and it looks unlikely that any of them will be able to mount a serious challenge.

Much like last season, the scramble for second place and the playoff spots should be exciting for neutrals and excruciating for fans of the clubs involved. The bookies seem to think Cardiff, Swansea and Nottingham Forest have an advantage here, which makes sense until you remember that until Swansea beat Leeds last weekend they’d only won one other game against a side in current top six. From that point of view, Forest’s trip to Swansea in a couple of weeks has already been pencilled in as a potential game of the week.

It would also be unwise to rule out last season’s other beaten semi finalists – Sven Goran Eriksson’s appointment as Leicester manager might have been the shrewdest signing of the season.

It probably escaped most people’s notice during the week, but Burnley’s win at Preston last weekend means that The Lillywhites cannot win the Championship. That’s the last of Phil Brown’s worries: the bookies have completely written off the bottom three, but I’ve got a feeling that Scunthorpe’s trip to Crystal Palace in April might be crucial for both teams.

Although Forest and Leicester are doing well this season, the East Midlands also provided the biggest shock in the FA Cup for years. Derby County were in the play off places at the end of November but the Rams have since lost eleven of their sixteen league games and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Crawley. The situation has degenerated to the point where Nigel Clough is favourite to be the next manager in the Championship to lose his job, although I’m not sure if getting rid of Clough is a good idea – they’re clearly better than the teams below them, although the recent home defeat by Sheffield United indicates how bad they are right now. Derby also have a couple of tricky looking games coming up – at Middlesbrough on Tuesday and at Crystal Palace on March 19th – and if Clough can survive March then he should still be at Pride Park in August.

With no changes at either the top or the bottom of the table possible this weekend, interest this weekend moves to the battle for the last play off place between Leeds and Leicester.

Leeds may have the easier task when they host Doncaster, although Rovers’ win at Derby on Tuesday was their first away success since mid November and the last time they made the short trip to Elland Road for a league game they came away with all three points. Leicester won at Loftus Road last season, but QPR have won six of the last ten league games between these two in West London and won 2-0 at the Walker’s Stadium in September.

The only televised game this weekend is Cardiff v Ipswich (Sky Sports 2, 5:20); a win could move the Bluebirds into second place if Swansea fail to win at Scunthorpe earlier in the afternoon. There’s also a full programme on Tuesday night.

This situation happened again last weekend. The game of the week at Loftus Road finished 1-1, despite Nottingham Forest having to play with ten men for almost seventy minutes after Polish midfielder Radoslaw Majewski was deservedly sent off for a bad tackle on Adel Taraabt.

If Nottm Forest were pleased by the point at Loftus Road, they certainly looked fed up after referee Keith Stroud signalled the end of their unexpected midweek defeat at Scunthorpe on Wednesday. The Iron’s second home victory of the season – the other was a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace that could be significant at the end of the season – means that the Lincolnshire side are now only two points behind Sheffield United and poised to break out of the bottom three.

Cardiff remain second and might have been pleased with taking four points from two consecutive home games, but the Bluebirds could have pulled away from the playoff spots if they’d beaten Burnley on Tuesday. Steve Thompson’s equaliser with seven minutes to play ensured Queens Park Rangers go into the weekend programme knowing they’ll remain in pole position even if they lose at Preston North End.

The bottom of the table is pretty much as you were, although a remarkable game at the Riverside saw Middlesbrough throw away a 3-1 half time lead against Swansea with Craig Beattie scoring the winner in the fourth minute of injury time. Preston also collapsed after taking a two goal lead at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night: having taken an early lead with a Sean St. Ledger goal, the half time introduction of substitutes Matt Wichelow and Adam Thompson paid off spectacularly for the Hornets as both of them scored to earn a point for the Hertfordshire side.

The weekend’s games kick off on Friday evening when Bristol City visit Leicester in a game that was moved from Saturday in order to stop traffic in Leicester city centre from coming to a total standstill – the local rugby union club have a Saturday evening kick off. Surprisingly, Leicester have only won one of the last six meetings between these two in the Midlands and with The Robins’ away form being much better than their recent record at Ashton Gate it’ll be interesting to see how this encounter develops.

Four games on Saturday afternoon catch the eye. At the top of the table, Cardiff travel to Nottingham Forest and the last time the hosts beat the Bluebirds in the league at the City Ground was before the Brian Clough era started!

Forest are undefeated at home against the other sides in the top six, but have only beaten Swansea: the visitors have an impressive away record against the other sides in the promotion race, having only lost to QPR.

Clough’s reign at Forest was considerably more successful than his brief but well documented spell at Leeds United, who entertain Norwich at Elland Road. The Canaries have lost three of their last four league visits to Yorkshire but the sides are pretty evenly matched and this could easily be a rehearsal for a playoff semi final.

At the bottom of the table, Sheffield United have a nasty looking run end to the season as they still have five games to play against teams in the bottom six, including two away trips in the space of a week. The Blades take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in a vital game for both teams: if Palace win they’ll be five points clear the relegation zone.

The numbers seem to suggest the visitors will struggle – Palace have taken seven points from a possible nine without conceding a goal against their fellow strugglers at Selhurst Park this season. Although Mickey Adams wasn’t managing the Blades when they lost to Middlesbrough and Bristol City earlier this season, he’ll be aware that if he wants to avoid a Sheffield derby in League 1 next season these are the types of games his side need to take points from.

The last two nPower Championship teams left in the FA Cup will have to wait until next week to play their fifth round games: Burnley travel to West Ham on Monday night (ESPN, 8:00pm) but the Clarets haven’t won at Upton Park for almost 50 years and might have to wait until visiting the Olympic Stadium for their first win. At least Eddie Howe’s team know who they’re playing: Reading have got to wait until Saturday before making travel arrangements for their tie at either Everton or Chelsea next Tuesday.

Only two goals were scored in the three league games over the weekend and both of them came at Millwall, where the Lions beat Barnsley 2-0. Scunthorpe’s game against Preston was postponed for the second time this season and both the other games finished goalless.

Tuesday night’s programme was far more eventful. QPR and Norwich both won, but Cardiff had to come from behind twice to earn a point against Reading – with yet another ‘dramatic late equaliser’, this time from Craig Bellamy. At the bottom of the table, Middlesbrough climbed out of the bottom six with a win over Scunthorpe: Bristol City and Portsmouth dropped back into danger after they both lost 2-0 to promotion contenders. Crystal Palace escaped the bottom three after drawing at Watford and were replaced by Sheffield United – who lost at home to Leicester.

The weekend starts when QPR visit the Madjewski Stadium on Friday (Sky Sports 1, 7:45) but it’s probably safe to say that if you’re looking forward to an action packed game then it might be worth watching the start of the Six Nations tournament elsewhere. The Royals have only lost once against the current top six at home but have drawn other four games; QPR haven’t scored in four of the last games in Berkshire but won 3-1 at Loftus Road in November.

Saturday afternoon’s game of the week is one that could have a big impact at the bottom of the table, is between two sides that are currently struggling and may not be of much interest to anyone outside Central Lancashire or South Bristol. Having only earned two points from a possible fifteen available in 2011, Preston cannot afford any more defeats this season – they’re currently on target to reach 35 points, which is only a point more than Peterborough managed last season – but Bristol City have only scored twice this year and have lost three of their last five trips to Deepdale since December 1996.

The weekend’s games conclude on Sunday lunchtime when Cardiff make the trip along the M4 to the Liberty Stadium for the second leg of the South Wales Derby. Swansea’s record in Cardiff isn’t bad, but the same can’t be said when the Bluebirds travel to their biggest rivals – Dave Jones’ side has never won at the Liberty Stadium and Cardiff’s last win at the Vetch Field was in March 1997.

The transfer window closed without the widely predicted departure of Jay Bothroyd to the Premiership and a lot of loan moves both from the Premier League and to Leagues 1 and 2. One of the more interesting deals involved former teenage prodigy Ryan Burge, who turned down a contract with Forest Green Rovers so he could join The Glenn Hoddle Academy in Spain a couple of years ago. Burge – a midfielder – joined Doncaster Rovers from Jerez Industrial on deadline day and it’ll be interesting to see if he justifies Hoddle’s somewhat revolutionary methods.

Three of the four games will affect both ends of the table – QPR’s lead is back to five points after they beat Coventry City for the second time in a month, but as Norwich are the only other side in top six to have a game this weekend, the Canaries have an opportunity to close that gap. Possibly the most significant results in the last week were Nottingham Forest’s wins over Derby and Bristol City – they’re now in fifth place with at least one game in hand over the other sides in the top six – and Cardiff’s entertaining 4-2 win over Watford.

The weekend fixtures start on Friday night when Barnsley travel to Millwall for the first time in nearly a decade. The Tykes picked up their first away win since November when a brace by new signing Danny Haynes enabled them to win at Doncaster for the third consecutive season; the Lions have won their last four league games at the New Den and will be looking to continue that record in order to keep up with teams ahead of them.

Hull host QPR on Saturday afternoon and although the Tigers haven’t lost at home to Queens Park Rangers since 1970, this game has low scoring draw written all over it. Norwich’s trip to Crystal Palace may not be as straightforward as it looks: the hosts have won seven of the last ten league games at Selhurst Park, but the Canaries have won three of their four away games at the current bottom six and the incentive of an automatic promotion spot could tip the balance in their favour.

Game of the week is Scunthorpe v Preston. Both teams earned a valuable point last weekend: the Iron drew at home to Burnley and kept a clean sheet at Glanford Park for the first time since September and yet another late equaliser – this time from Billy Jones – helped Preston nick at a point at the Riverside. However the form book doesn’t favour Preston: the Lillywhites haven’t won at Scunthorpe since Feb 96 and the hosts have only lost once in their five games against the bottom six this season.

It’s a shame to relegate the FA Cup to a footnote, but apart from the once in a lifetime opportunity to see Leyton Orient play in a game with Welsh commentary (S4C’s ‘Sgorio’ show is showing their game against Swansea at 12:50pm on Saturday) the only real interest in this season’s competition is guessing which team will get the furthest.

On paper, Burnley, Reading and Swansea look as if they have the best chance but they’re all playing teams from lower divisions who were supposed to have been cannon fodder in the third round. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of team Alex McLeish selects for Coventry’s visit to Birmingham: having reached the Carling Cup final on Wednesday evening, the Blues might decide that Premiership survival is a priority. The most competitive tie looks as if it’s Brighton’s trip to Watford, but I think the best chance of an upset could be if Nottm Forest can stop West Ham winning on Sunday afternoon as the Hammers won’t relish a replay at the City Ground.

The only big move in the transfer market so far this week is Kris Commons’ move from Derby to Celtic – the striker was out of contract at the end and was joint third in the goal scoring table before his departure with 13 goals, nine goals more than Tomasz Cywka. Presumably Nigel Clough will be signing a striker to replace Commons, but if he can find another player who can score exactly one third of Derby’s goals he’ll be doing well!

Burnley also made the news this week with the appointment of Eddie Howe as manager – the former Bournemouth boss has been ‘one to watch’ for a couple of seasons and seems to be following Sean O’Driscoll’s career – both played for and managed the Cherries before moving into management roles. Howe’s first game in charge will be at Scunthorpe (Sky Sports 2, 5:20pm): a win would re-ignite the Clarets hopes of a playoff spot and put the Iron in further trouble at the bottom of the table.

Looking at the rest of this week’s games, the top of the table is beginning to look tighter than it has done for some time. QPR’s lead is now down to three points and there are only four points between Watford and the automatic promotion spot.

Rangers’ third away goalless draw of season came at Turf Moor and their recent inability to score goals away from home must be worrying Neil Warnock – they’ve only scored two goals in their last five away games and that was against this weekend’s opponents. Although Rangers are at home to Coventry on Sunday (Sky Sports 1, 1pm), the Sky Blues have only lost once at Loftus Road in the last six meetings in the league. Even if Coventry win at Loftus Road, Swansea would have to win by 19 clear goals at Barnsley on Saturday to go top on goal difference.

As predicted, the Swans had a fairly straightforward 3-0 over Crystal Palace while Cardiff’s inability to win at Norwich was emphasised when Russell Martin cancelled out Jon Parkin’s debut goal for the Bluebirds with a last minute equaliser.

At the bottom, the situation is looking increasingly desperate for Preston, who are now six points away from safety. The Lillywhites were involved in a similar game to the one at Carrow Road – they salvaged a point at home against Leicester courtesy of an equaliser from Ian Hume. However, the bottom six clubs are only separated by nine points and it’s worth pointing out that Scunthorpe’s two games in hand could be crucial; Sheffield United still have to travel to Palace, Ipswich, Preston and Scunthorpe and aren’t exactly out of the woods yet.

There are two candidates for game of the week, each at different ends of the table. Middlesbrough’s 4-0 win at Ashton Gate was probably the biggest surprise last weekend and was something of a double whammy for Preston, who travel to the Riverside this weekend. North End haven’t won at Middlesbrough since November 1971 and have lost four of their six games against the current bottom six. On the other hand, Tony Mowbray’s side have only been beaten once by another club in the bottom six – and no-one would have predicted that Ipswich would have been struggling and both Gordon Strachan and Roy Keane would have been jobless after the Tractor Boys’ 3-1 win back in August.

At the top of the table only two points separate Cardiff from Watford and this game could be a cagey affair. Although the Hornets may have a psychological advantage after their 4-1 win over the Bluebirds at Vicarage Road just after Christmas, Watford haven’t drawn a league game in the Welsh capital since 1938 and have already beaten Norwich and QPR on their travels this season.

Quite a bit more activity in the transfer market this week: Adam Hammill (Wolves) and David Wheater (Bolton) moved up to the Premiership from Barnsley and Middlesbrough respectively. In what looks like a perfect move for all concerned Darren Purse joined Millwall from Sheffield Wednesday, but possibly the most significant move was a loan deal: after having already signed Jon Parkin from Preston, Cardiff borrowed Jay Emmanuel-Thomas from Arsenal – the clearest sign yet that Jay Bothroyd may be on his way to pastures new.