Having wondered if  Birmingham might face a tricky trip to Sheffield United, it was nice to be proven completely wrong – the Blues were 2-0 up at half time at Bramall Lane and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners, with Adam Rooney nabbing a brace. Jermaine Beckford also scored twice for Leicester who beat Swindon 2-0 but easily the performance of the weekend was Brighton beating Newcastle 1-0 at the Amex Stadium although it took an own goal from former Watford and Portsmouth defender Mike Williamson to settle the tie.

Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Millwall and Southampton all face replays: Ian Holloway’s side had to come from behind at home to Sheffield Wednesday and only salvaged a draw courtesy of an injury time penalty from Kevin Phillips.  It was a similar type of story at the New Den as Rickie Lambert opened the scoring for Southampton but the Saints were pegged back due to a late equaliser from Darius Henderson. Middlesbrough bucked the trend by taking the lead at the Stadium Of Light, but couldn’t hold on.

Yesterday’s draw for the Fifth Round looks as if it could be a major obstacle for any of the clubs left in the competition – all six Championship teams that could take part have been drawn against Premier League opposition. Birmingham and Brighton have to travel to Chelsea and Liverpool respectively, while Leicester will play Norwich at the King Power Stadium. Whoever prevails between Millwall and Southampton will fancy their chances against Bolton: if Blackpool can win at Hillsborough they’ll visit Everton while Middlesbrough’s incentive to beat Sunderland at the Riverside is a home game against Arsenal.

Finally, Watford and Derby lost to Premier League opposition but Hull became the second Championship team to lose to Crawley Town in this season’s competition. Last season’s Conference Champions have beaten both the Tigers and Bristol City without conceding a goal: at this rate it may not be too long before Crawley feature in these posts regularly.

I’ll be back tomorrow to take a look at the midweek league games and a look at anything interesting that happened before the transfer window closed.

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…

This week as it’s more or less a case of ‘as you were’ in the Championship due to the FA Cup games last weekend and only one league game during the week when Birmingham beat Ipswich on Wednesday night. The Blues have now managed five single goal wins in the league at St Andrews this season: Nikola Zigic scored twice to move Birmingham two points outside the playoff spots with a game in hand and a much better goal difference than Hull.

The Serbian striker’s goal also condemned Ipswich to their third consecutive defeat. To make matters worse for the Tractor Boys – who have now lost ten of their last 15 games – under fire boss Paul Jewell made headlines for the wrong reasons following his post match comments about fourth official Amy Fearn.

After the irregular patters of the last few weeks and with the exception of the only televised game this weekend, we revert back to the traditional Saturday afternoon kick offs. With only two of the top six clubs at home this weekend there’s a chance that either Middlesbrough or Cardiff could go top if both Southampton (at Nottingham Forest) or West Ham (at Portsmouth) lose, while the only thing certain at the bottom end of the table is Coventry cannot escape the bottom three regardless of how they do at Derby.

By the time Reading kick off at Watford on Saturday evening in the weekend’s only televised game (Sky Sports 2, 5:20pm), there may be a new team at the top of the Championship for the first time since September – so it makes sense that Nottingham Forest v Southampton is game of the week.

Those of us of a certain vintage will remember the 1979 League Cup Final between these two clubs, but it’s extremely unlikely that Steve Cotterill will be forcing his Forest side to drink their way through a crate of champagne this evening to prepare for the Saints. Considering the recent ups and downs of both clubs it’s a surprising that tomorrow’s game is only their second meeting at the City Ground this century, but equally surprising is that the hosts haven’t scored at home in the league since Marcus Tudgay netted another injury time winner against Ipswich in mid November.

On the other hand, Southampton are beginning to look as if they’ve run out of momentum. The leaders have only won twice since the end of November and haven’t won an away game since beating Coventry at the Ricoh Arena on Guy Fawkes Night: Rickie Lambert’s equaliser at Portsmouth before Christmas is the only goal Southampton have scored in their last four away games in the Championship.

If Southampton stumble at Nottingham Forest, it looks as if Cardiff may be best placed to take over top spot. The Bluebirds travel to Doncaster – and not to put too fine a point on it, Rovers’ record at home to Cardiff is absolutely terrible. Since their first league meeting in September 1947, Cardiff have only lost twice in 15 games at either the old Belle View stadium or at the Keepmoat.

Finally this week, nothing much seems to have happened in the transfer market so far but there are persistent rumours that both Billy Sharp and Lukas Jutkiewicz may be moving from Doncaster Rovers and Coventry City respectively, with Leicester City (surprise surprise) being the destination for one or maybe even both of them. If both Sharp and Jutkiewicz leave their current clubs before the winter window closes, it’s probably safe to say that there’ll only be one relegation place left to fill…

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.

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.

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.

I scribbled a few thoughts into my notebook but a couple seemed fairly pertinent: since Nigel Pearson left Leicester in summer 2010, it’s best to describe both Sven and his predecessor (Paolo Sousa) as ‘vanity’ appointments. Despite having a reputation that appears to be built on sand, Sousa hasn’t been at any club long enough to make any kind of a positive impression as a manager and Eriksson hasn’t won anything with a club since the double with Lazio in 1999/2000.

Perhaps they both interviewed well, but my second thought was that Leicester City have a great deal in common with  a lot of other teams in the Championship. The Foxes have spent more seasons in the second tier of English football than they have at any other level and haven’t played in the Premier League for eight seasons. Leicester were this season’s ‘trendy’ pick to win the Championship and are thought of as a ‘big’ club in the Championship, even though these days that largely means having foreign owners, a flexible policy over stadium naming rights and being one of the clubs that Eriksson used to manage. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Manchester City are currently top of the Premier League not half way down the Championship.

I’ve got nothing against ambition, but it has to be tempered with a dose of reality now and again. It’s all very well having superb facilities and no immediate local rivals to compete against, but a quick glance at Leicester’s honours list indicates that they’re very much a second tier club that has historically performed better with managers from the UK and Ireland.

Upon returning from France there was no time write a post last weekend, so it’s double helpings this week.

Unusually for a Tuesday night, there are three games that will have a direct impact on both ends of the table so we’ll start with Hull’s trip to Barnsley: the Tykes – who lost at home to Bristol City last weekend – have a dreadful record against the Tigers at Oakwell (only two wins in the last ten meetings) while Nigel Pearson’s side have only lost two of their last 20 away games and are are one of the best away teams in the Championship despite their lack of goals on the road. Having picked up three single goal wins away from the KC Stadium this season, another one wouldn’t come as a massive surprise.

Despite their away record being as good as Hull’s, Middlesbrough have fallen off the pace a little recently – one win in the last month is hardly promotion form – but they face a Doncaster side that have only won three home league games in the last calendar year. There hasn’t been a draw between these two clubs in South Yorkshire since the first time they ever met in the league, a goalless draw almost a century ago

Despite having picked up a vital win in South Yorkshire at the weekend, bottom of the table Bristol City will be underdogs when they travel to West Ham for a league game for the first time since January 1993, but although the Hammers home record isn’t bad they’ve not won three consecutive games in the league for almost three years. The Robins last won back to back away games in the Championship last season but have only won one of their last five games in the capital and have only ever won once at Upton Park.

I’ll be back on Friday, possibly with news about an appointment at Fratton Park but with a review of the midweek action and a preview of the weekend’s games.

Oh yes – one club playing in the Europa League, two clubs without managers (although an official announcement from Nottingham Forest is expected over the weekend), three clubs in the top six that weren’t in the Championship this time last year and four clubs left in the Carling Cup with two guaranteed quarter final places.

There are some great looking games this weekend – starting with a game between two of the three teams from Yorkshire left in the top half of the football league when Leeds travel to Doncaster (SS1 19:45). Leeds won at the Keepmoat in the Carling Cup earlier this season but it’s not exactly been a happy hunting ground for United in the league over the years: they’ve managed only two wins at Doncaster (the last in April 1956) and their more recent away form is less than convincing – Leeds have won two of their last ten road trips.

There’s only been one game between any of the sides that have been in the top six this season, but that’s going to change on Saturday when there are a pair of them. There are some interesting comparisons between the two contenders for game of the week:  Hull’s trip to Brighton (kick off at 5:30pm) should be interesting – the Tigers haven’t won at Brighton since August 1965 and have failed to score in eight of their last ten trips to Sussex.

Southampton’s record at Derby County is almost as bad. The Saints have only won twice in their last 20 league outings at either the Baseball Ground or Pride Park and although Nigel Adkins’ side got off to a great start, there are signs their away form is beginning to fall away. Since winning 5-2 in Ipswich in mid August they’ve only picked up one point from the nine available on their travels.

Middlesbrough are ideally placed to take advantage of any slip up by the current leaders, but although Boro are the only undefeated team left in the Championship their recent record at the Riverside is puzzling. They’ve drawn four of their five games in front of their own fans this season and failed to score at all at home in the league in September – Marvin Emnes’ goal against Coventry on August Bank Holiday Weekend was the last time Boro hit the net at the Riverside! The hosts could exploit Millwall’s inability to score away from home – the Lions have scored one goal in their last four away trips – and although the visitors won the corresponding game last season, they’ve never had consecutive successes on Teeside.Co

There’s a six pointer at the other end of the table when Nottingham Forest travel to the Ricoh Arena but unlike the games at Brighton, Derby and Middlesbrough, this is a fixture that the away team has dominated over the years. If the rumours flying around on Friday lunchtime are to be believed – Steve Cotterill leaving Portsmouth to take over at the City Ground – then it may be a good time for Forest’s currentt squad to extend that run.

There are two other televised games this weekend: Barnsley’s trip to Portsmouth is live on Sky Sports 2 at 5:20pm on Saturday evening and Birmingham entertain Leicester City on BBC1 on Sunday lunchtime – then there’s a full midweek programme, the highlight of which is probably Southampton v West Ham on Tuesday night.

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.