Results over the past seven days should show precisely how competitive and surprising the Championship ought to be – West Ham being walloped 5-1 at Ipswich was probably the most surprising result of the season. The leaders looked as if they’d got back into the game just before half time, but Lee Martin’s penalty in first half injury time more or less killed off the game.

Perhaps a bigger surprise came the following day when Leeds sacked Simon Grayson after their 4-1 home defeat by Birmingham City. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, promoted teams often rely on momentum and euphoria to sustain them through their first season and problems can often arise when the momentum becomes inertia. A lot of people – myself included – thought Leeds could kick on this season and mount a serious promotion challenge, but that’s not been the case and it’s easy to see why: their home form has declined since last year. Their current defensive record at Elland Road is worse than four of the current bottom six teams and only Peterborough have kept fewer home clean sheets.

Despite the surprises, nothing really changed. The top three are the same, although they can’t be caught this weekend. It’s not entirely clear who will be top this evening, but we’ll come to that in a minute. At the bottom there’s now a five point gap between Millwall and Doncaster and that could be significant – since February 2005 at least two of the three teams in the relegation zone have been relegated, although last season was the first time since 2005/06 that all three clubs at the bottom of the table at the beginning of February went down.

There are no less than three televised Championship games this weekend and so I make no apologies for focusing on them, especially as one is game of the week. The best way to preview these is to start at the beginning…at the Boleyn Ground at lunchtime where Millwall make the short trip across the Thames to play West Ham (Sky Sports 2, 12:30pm). The Lions have never beaten West Ham away from home and although they won at Barnsley (thanks to a hat trick from Darius Henderson) a couple of weeks ago they’ve not won consecutive away league games since the spring. As for West Ham, I can imagine Sam Allardyce will want to put Tuesday’s defeat behind his side as quickly as possible, especially as there’s a real prospect that the Hammers could end the day with a five point lead.

West Ham’s chances of extending their lead at the top also depends on the result of Birmingham v Southampton (SS2, 5:20pm) which is not only game of the week but better entertainment than what’s on BBC1 at the same time. Only five points separate the teams in second and fourth place at the moment and with Birmingham having moved into the play off spots after winning at Leeds, this evening’s game is an opportunity to for them to establish themselves as genuine promotion candidates. The Blues have won the last five games between them at St Andrews and Chris Houghton’s side still haven’t been beaten at home this season. I’d be surprised if Southampton came away with a win, but my recent predictions haven’t exactly been flawless.

This weekend’s programme finishes literally and metaphorically with a derby game – Nottingham Forest make the short trip to Pride Park (BBC1) where they won last season but haven’t managed consecutive away victories against Derby for over twenty years. The Rams have won their last four home games with teenage striker Callum Ball scoring three goals in those games – he’s definitely one to keep an eye on. It appears that Forest have worked out how to score goals again, but meetings between the clubs in Derbyshire are usually tight games: one team has failed to score in seven of the last ten.

The transfer window ‘slammed shut’ during the week and most of the last minute moves involved West Ham, who signed Ricardo Vaz Te from Barnsley, Nicky Maynard from Bristol City and Ravel Morrison from Manchester United. Probably the most interesting move was Marvin Sordell moving from Watford to Bolton – the 20 year old striker made his debut for the England U21 side last September and presumably Owen Coyle thinks he’s ready to be a success at the next level.

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.

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.

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.’

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.

There are similar reasons behind the decisions at Bristol City, Doncaster Rovers and Nottingham Forest. The performance of all three clubs has regressed from last season, although Forest’s decline has been most spectacular and the least expected. The circumstances under which McClaren and Millen departed Forest and Bristol City were also remarkably similar: poor starts to the season culminating in losing after a leading a home game and heavy defeats away from home.

Whoever takes over the Forest job may have the tougher job due to unrealistic fan expectations. Despite not having won anything since the equivalent of the Championship in 1997/98 and having not played in the Premier League since the last century, the reality of the current situation is that although the Tricky Trees have made the play offs in two of the three seasons since they were promoted from League 1, they’re probably no better than a mid table Championship side.

Presumably Steve McClaren was seen as the man to get them over the final hurdle and back into the land of milk and honey, but it soon became apparent that McClaren’s ambitions for Forest would be hampered by the chairman Nigel Doughty’s control over club finances – what bought matters to a head before the defeat by Birmingham City was that McClaren wanted to bring in two Premier League players but Doughty felt their wages would be too high. According to BBC Radio 5 expert Pat Murphy, McClaren was going to walk out after the Birmingham game regardless of the result and in the aftermath of his departure, Doughty announced he would be stepping down from the chairman’s role at the end of this season.

Despite having been promoted from League 1 the season before Nottingham Forest were, it’s fair to say that both the fan expectations and the national profile for Bristol City are somewhat lower. There’s been a steady and – until recently – a relatively gentle decline in the club’s fortunes since a narrow defeat to Hull City in the playoff final in May 2008 and although last season was something of a write off following the appointment and almost immediate resignation of Steve Coppell, the lack of any progress in the past year has been noticeable. The Robins fit the profile of a team that are facing a season long relegation battle and it’s the prospect of returning to League 1 rather than any aspirations to the Premier League that lead to Millen’s dismissal.

It’ll be interesting to see who’ll get the jobs at both clubs. Dave Jones (ex-Cardiff City boss) and Mark Robins (ex-Barnsley manager who played for Bristol City on loan whilst in League 1) are the early favourites for the job at Ashton Gate although there’s a degree of uncertainty about who McClaren’s successor will be, with MK Dons’ current manager Karl Robinson amongst the realistic front runners for the position at Forest.