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.

If Southampton win and West Ham lose at Ipswich, the Saints will go top. If Cardiff win, they’ll move into second place regardless of how West Ham do and the Bluebirds will also have a two point advantage over Southampton. If it’s a draw and the Hammers win, Big Sam and company will have a five point lead at the top at the end of January – the same situation as QPR were in at the end of January 2011.

So what can expect from tonight’s games? Well, unsurprisingly to regular readers Southampton v Cardiff  is yet another one of those games where one side seems to be at a tremendous disadvantage. Cardiff have been awful at Southampton over the years – the last time the Bluebirds won a league game at the Dell was in October 1962 and they’ve only picked up two points in the ten games on the South Coast since then.

Moving away from the long term outlook, a look at this season’s form indicates that one side may be a flash in the pan and the other is consistent if not spectacular. Cardiff have only lost two away games in the league this season and are currently on an eight game undefeated streak on the road as well as looking forward to the Carling Cup final in a few weeks time. Since losing 4-3 at Peterborough in mid October the Bluebirds have kept four clean sheets in seven games and only West Ham and Hull have conceded fewer away goals this season. To put that another way, Cardiff have conceded eight fewer goals away from home than this time last year: that’s the type of form that wins promotion. Remarkably, this is a totally different Cardiff side to last season’s – only Darcy Blake and Peter Whittingham from the team that started at Doncaster were in the starting eleven in the disastrous playoff semi final against Reading in May.

In contrast, Southampton’s fantastic start to the season at St Mary’s (ten consecutive wins) has hit the skids in recent weeks. They’ve not won at home since Boxing Day and failed to score in their last two games. Although he’s been suspended recently, top scorer Rickie Lambert hasn’t scored at home since his injury time equaliser against Blackpool on December 10th and Nigel Adkins decision to sign Billy Sharp from Doncaster shows how serious the goalscoring issue is. In the past I’ve discussed how important momentum is to newly promoted teams and it would appear that Southampton’s may have run out a little earlier than they were hoping.

There could also be some implications for the rest of the season. After tonight’s game, the only home game Southampton have left against a side currently in the top six is against Reading in April – they still have to travel to Hull, Middlesbrough and West Ham. Although they’ve beaten those teams at St. Mary’s, it’s fair to say that Southampton don’t travel well. Cardiff are in a similar position: their only remaining away game against a top six side is at Middlesbrough (in March) and having already won at Hull and Reading, a third away victory against their immediate rivals could be vital in the next few months.

The other game that will have an impact on the top – and also potentially at the bottom – of the table is at Portman Road. Ipswich have been terrible at home recently- one win in the last seven games – and have obvious defensive issues, so it’s not a good time to be playing the league leaders. It also doesn’t help when West Ham are also one of only five teams this season that have scored 20 or more away goals and haven’t lost in a league game at Ipswich since Christmas 1989.

I’ll be back at the end of the week with a quick round up of the midweek games and a look forward to the weekend’s games – which begin and end with derbies – but I can’t help thinking that whatever happens at St. Mary’s this evening, West Ham will still be top.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the other end of the table, although Doncaster Rovers picked up their first point of the season although they had to come from behind at home to Bristol City to do so.

 Biggest thumping of the week came at the City Ground, where West Ham beat Nottingham Forest 4-1. Although both sides had chances early on, the game was effectively over after half an hour as the Hammers established a three goal lead that Forest never really looked like overcoming.

Whether it was the result in particular, Forest’s poor start to the season at home (they’ve not won a home game in the league since the end of April) or their complete lack of activity in the transfer market, on Friday afternoon there were all sorts of rumours circulating about Steve McClaren’s future at the club. Forest weren’t exactly quick out of the blocks at the start of last season but they still reached the playoffs: how much of this particular crisis has been inspired by Derby’s transformation into a decent team is open to debate, but it can’t have helped matters.

Not surprisingly, the most interesting moves made by Championship clubs before the transfer window closed were those that involved players either moving to or from clubs in the Premier League. Cameron Jerome moved from Birmingham to Stoke; Scott Parker’s eventual departure from West Ham was inevitable but Sam Allardyce brought in David Bentley on loan from Spurs, the club Parker joined. Having apparently given up any hope of signing Bristol City’s Nicky Maynard, Leicester bought Jermaine Beckford from Everton.

However, the deal that might have the most impact this season involved Reading landing Adam Le Fondre from Rotherham. The Stockport born striker –who is still only 24 – scored 110 goals in 257 appearances for Stockport, Rochdale and Rotherham and if he can maintain that rate in the Championship then the Royals will have bought themselves a bargain.

So what – if anything – can we learn after five games? With just over 10% of the season gone it’s almost compulsory to make sweeping generalisations, particularly as this time last year Swansea and Scunthorpe were level on points. However, it already looks as if the momentum that propelled Brighton and Southampton to automatic promotion hasn’t stopped yet, Birmingham City’s promotion campaign could be derailed by their participation in the group stages of the Europa League and if West Ham are serious about being promoted they need to stop conceding late goals at home.

Looking at the ‘established’ Championship clubs, the early season form of both Derby and Crystal Palace is surprising but not entirely unexpected and emphasises – once again – that managerial consistency is extremely valuable at this level. Whether either of those clubs can maintain their current performance is something we’ll find out soon, as I suspect Middlesbrough may be the best long term promotion prospect from the ‘surprise’ teams so far.

At the other end of the ‘surprise’ scale I’ve already mentioned Nottingham Forest; Reading’s poor start can be excused due to a playoff hangover and some appalling luck (the missed penalties against Barnsley in particular) but Leeds appear to be victims of a combination of ‘second season’ syndrome exacerbated by disappointment at not reaching the playoffs in May. I’d expect a gradual improvement from all three of those teams before Christmas: however, if I was a fan of either Coventry or Doncaster I’d be slightly worried, although on the positive side only one of the clubs in the bottom three at this stage last season was ultimately relegated.

The biggest surprise in what used to be known as the League Cup this week was West Ham crashing out to Aldershot on Wednesday night. Junior Stanislas gave the Hammers the lead after 16 minutes but when Callum McNaughton was dismissed after half time, Aldershot’s Luke Guttridge equalised and Danny Hylton’s 89^thminute winner gave the Surrey side a deserved win. It’s the third time this season that West Ham have conceded a vital goal in the last five minutes, a trend that ought to be worrying Sam Allardyce.

Last weekend Southampton continued their impressive start with a 1-0 win over Millwall and Derbyhad no trouble dealing with Doncaster but the biggest surprise was Peterborough’s 7-1 thrashing of Ipswich in the tea time game on Sky. Although Keith Andrews gave Ipswich an early lead, the game was effectively over at half time with Town having conceded four goals in ten minutes and having Lee Martin dismissed for a reckless challenge on Mark Little. Things went from bad to worse immediately after the re-start: Tommy Smith had only been on the field for two minutes before being giving away a penalty and being sent off for a foul on Lee Tomlin, who scored a hat-trick for Posh.

At the bottom of the table, Coventry and Watford played out a 0-0 draw but they still occupy two of the bottom three spots – Doncaster’s defeat means that they’re already two points from safety and they’ve not scored since the opening day defeat at Brighton.

It’s still far too early to discuss what could happen over the rest of the season but with a five point gap between the last play off place and the current leaders, by mid September we may have an idea of the shape of things to come and there are three games this weekend that could provide some pointers this weekend. Game of the week this weekend is Peterborough’s trip to Brighton, which is the only clash between teams in the top six. Posh lost 3-1 at the Withdean in League One last season and have only won one of their last six trips to Brighton in the league and it’ll be interesting to see how Craig Mackail-Smith does in his first game against his old club.

Burnley visit Pride Park in a game that has been tricky for the hosts over the years – Derby haven’t beaten the Clarets at home since January 2007 and lost this game last season – and although Eddie Howe’s side are one of the four teams yet to win a game this season, they’ve played one game less due to Birmingham’s European adventures.

The game with the biggest impact at both ends of the table is Middlesbrough v Coventry. Boro are undefeated while the Sky Blues have only won one of their last fifteen games in the Championship: they’ve also only won once in their last ten visits to Teeside.

 There’s only one televised game this weekend and once again armchair West Ham fans will have their Sunday lunches ruined again when the Hammers travel to Nottingham Forest for a league game for the first time since Boxing Day 2004 (Sky Sports 1, 1:15).Forest have a poor record at home to West Ham and having started the season with two draws at the City Ground it wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if this game ended all square.

Finally this week, congratulations to Birmingham City who reached the group stages of the Europa League on Thursday with a 3-0 aggregate win over Nacional of Portugal. Although this post was published before the draw had been made, it’ll be fascinating to see how the Blues do in the competition and hopefully they’ll be able to fly the flag in Europe for all Championship teams.

Southampton and Brighton have carried the momentum that got them promoted into this season, although the suspicion is that the Saints haven’t really been tested yet. The same might have been said about Brighton, although a very convincing 3-1 win at Cardiff City on Wednesday night sent a very clear message to anyone who thought the Seagulls might be a soft touch. Ashley Barnes scored twice and new signing Craig Mackail-Smith contributed two assists before Peter Whittingham provided a consolation goal for the Bluebirds.

Arguably it’s Derby’s performance so far that’s a surprise, although as we pointed out in the pre-season preview Nigel Clough rebuilt the team over the summer and two wins against teams that were in the Premier League last season indicate that this season’s version of the Rams are not the pushovers of 2010/11.

At the wrong end of the table there are already signs that this season could be a long one for both Coventry City and Doncaster. Both clubs have lost their three opening games and Coventry were also knocked out of the Carling Cup by Bury; Doncaster have a cup win over Tranmere under their belts, have also suffered

It’s actually quite a big weekend – five of the top six clubs are at home with Derby possibly having the best chance of making it four wins from four games when they entertain Doncaster on Saturday afternoon. Or so it might seem: Rovers are actually undefeated in their last four trips to Pride Park and have won the last three.

The game of the week is at the bottom of the table and is between Coventry and Watford – the Hornets have a decent record at the Sky Blues, having only lost four times in the last ten games but with Doncaster and Barnsley both facing games that are probably beyond them this weekend, novice managers Andy Thorn (currently favourite in the ‘next manager to leave his post’ market) and Sean Dyche won’t need to be reminded that a win could kick start their respective seasons.

 If you’re unable to make it to a game this weekend, Sky are showing Peterborough v Ipswich (Saturday 5:20pm Sky Sports 2) and West Ham v Leeds (Sunday 1:15pm, Sky Sports 1). The Tractor Boys visit to London Road is something of a rarity as it’s only the second time they’ve met in the league at Peterborough: the only time Ipswich have ever won there was in an FA Cup tie almost four decades ago. On Sunday it’s worth remembering that West Ham have a dreadful record at home to Leeds in the league – they’ve only won one of the ten league games at the Boleyn Ground since August 1994, a 3-0 win in March 1998.

Finally this week, the list of top goalscorers has an intriguing look to it – David Connolly and Adam Lallana of Southampton both have three goals, as does Marvin Emnes of Middlesbrough. But if anyone was in any doubt how important Nicky Maynard is to Bristol City their doubts are no longer valid. The Robins have scored three goals this season – and Maynard has scored all of them.

The first weekend of the new season kicked off with Blackpool’s 1-0 win at Hull – Gary Taylor-Fletcher’s late strike was the first goal of the season – and continued on Saturday lunchtime when Leicester won by the same score at Coventry in a game that featured two red cards. Former England striker Darius Vassell became the first player to receive his marching orders in 2010/11 for a dreadful challenge on Richard Keogh.

Five teams won their opening league game and followed it up with success in the Carling Cup: Southampton, Brighton, Leicester, Peterborough and Cardiff have started well, although the last two clubs needed extra time to progress. Peterborough twice blew the lead at Stevenage before a Lee Tomlin penalty won the game and Cardiff also needed extra time at Oxford United.

At the other end of the scale, Coventry and Hull have lost both of their games so far. In the context of the Carling Cup, Coventry’s defeat at Bury may be a blessing in disguise in the long term, but the Tigers home defeat by Morecambe may have greater significance as Hull have now failed to score in their last two games at the KC Stadium. Both clubs are away from home this weekend – Coventry at Birmingham and Hull visit Ipswich – but although the Sky Blues can take some encouragement from the fact that they’ve won four of the last six games at St. Andrews, Hull have only won once in their last ten visits to Portman Road.

Five other clubs had midweek games in the Carling Cup that went to extra time and it’ll be interesting to see how they cope with the early season workload. Cardiff and Leicester look as if they’re best placed to make it three wins in a row – Bristol City visit the City of Cardiff Stadium on Sunday and Reading travel to Leicester’s King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Robins have failed to win at Cardiff in four of the last five league games, but Leicester haven’t beaten the Royals at home for eight years.

In the aftermath of the riots that swept the country at the start of the week, four clubs had their Carling Cup games postponed on police advice. Reading, Watford, Crystal Palace and Bristol City will all have to play catch up, with their first round matches inconveniently rescheduled for the week of the second round. The draw for the second round was reasonably kind, with only one confirmed game between Championship teams (Peterborough v Middlesbrough) although if Bristol City beat Swindon in their re-arranged tie Southampton will travel to Ashton Gate. If Crystal Palace beat Crawley Town they’ll face Wigan and Sunderland’s visit to the Amex Community Stadium will be a memorable night for Brighton.

There are no televised games this weekend due to the return of the Premier League, but there’s a full Championship programme during the week and I’ll be back at the beginning of the week to recap this weekend’s action as well as previewing next week’s games.