Hard on Rangers’ heels are four of the five unbeaten teams – Craig Bellamy scored the last goal in Cardiff City’s 4-0 win over Doncaster Rovers, Burnley made short work of Leicester City, Coventry City beat Derby County and Ipswich Town won at Crystal Palace.

Some of those unbeaten records might be in danger this weekend as only two of the top six clubs are at home this weekend: Millwall lost their first game of the season despite taking the lead against Leeds through a Richard Naylor own goal, but will be looking to get back to winning ways when Coventry travel to South London in the game of the week.

Possibly surprisingly given that they were widely tipped to struggle, the other unbeaten team is Watford, who picked up a useful point at Hull City last week and will be looking to put their midweek Carling Cup defeat to Notts County behind them when Leeds visit this weekend.

The bottom of the table has an early season look to it: before the season started a case could have been made for five of the bottom six to have playoff aspirations at the very least and Sky Sports probably weren’t expecting Leicester and Reading to be at the wrong end of the table when they chose their game to televise (Sky Sports 2, Saturday 5:15pm).

Gary Speed will have to wait another week for his first win as Sheffield United manager after the Blades lost 1-0 at Middlesbrough and dropped to the bottom of the table, but the new manager may not have to wait much longer – Preston haven’t won at Bramall Lane since November 1978 and have only drawn four and lost nine of the last 13 games between the two clubs in South Yorkshire.

Of the other clubs that haven’t had the best of starts, Portsmouth have even struggled to put out the regulation number of substitutes – there were just four players on the bench at Preston last weekend – and could be facing a long season; a visit from Cardiff City featuring an in form Jay Bothroyd really isn’t what Steve Cotterill’s side need right now.

Bristol City, Preston and Reading all picked up their first home points of the season, but only Preston won and Bristol City earned their point the hard way, having had to come behind twice to earn a point against Barnsley – two Andy Gray goals in twelve minutes had given the Tykes a great start that they ultimately failed to capitalise on.

There are only seven Championship clubs left in the Carling Cup, although at least Leeds, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace were knocked out by Leicester, Millwall and Portsmouth respectively; Reading’s Matt Mills managed to score three goals against Northampton Town of League 2 but the crucial one was the own goal right at the end of extra time that took the game to a penalty shoot out…that Reading lost.

The club reacted quickly by giving Gary Speed the job, but his nPower Championship managerial debut will be against Middlesbrough at the Riverside on Sunday lunchtime (Sky Sports 1) and Gordon Strachan’s side will be looking for a win to kick start their season.

QPR are one of a pair of unbeaten teams with identical records – perhaps surprisingly the other is Millwall, who celebrated their first home game in the Championship since April 2006 by beating Hull City 4-0. It’ll be interesting to see if the both can maintain their promising starts this weekend: on paper, QPR shouldn’t have any problems with Scunthorpe – although the Iron won at Loftus Road last season – and Millwall’s recent record at Leeds isn’t too bad.

The first game of the week is a Saturday lunchtime start for Coventry City and Derby County (Sky Sports 2) which – along with QPR v Scunthorpe – is one of the four games between teams that won either their first home or away game. The other games in that category are Crystal Palace v. Ipswich and Watford’s trip up north to visit Hull City.

Three teams – Bristol City, Preston and Reading – are looking to pick up their first home points of the season. Preston are the only team in the Championship yet to score a goal but neither The Lillywhites nor this weekend’s opponents (Portsmouth) have enviable defensive records.

Barnsley haven’t won at Ashton Gate since October 1993 and Reading have failed to beat Nottingham Forest in their last two league games at the Madjewski Stadium. There isn’t an outstanding candidate for game of the week, but even though it’s late August Burnley v Leicester City sounds as if it could be a playoff game in May.

The transfer deadline in the Championship doesn’t close until September 1st but amongst the inevitable rumours that are currently doing the rounds (Edgar Davids to Crystal Palace?), one thing is certain: Robbie Savage now has a rival for the role of the player that opposing fans love to hate – Craig Bellamy joined Cardiff City on loan this week and will probably make his home debut against Doncaster Rovers.

If an opening day defeat and being beaten by lower league opposition in the Carling Cup represents some sort of benchmark then Mark Robbins (Barnsley) and Billy Davies (Nottingham Forest) should take note.

Bristol City immediately appointed Steve Coppell’s assistant Keith Millen as their new manager: the former Brentford and Watford defender finished his career at Bristol City and was caretaker manager at the club after Gary Johnson left with nine games to go last season.

The first weekend of the new season resulted in five away wins – including a 3-1 Ipswich Town win at Middlesbrough – and only one draw. QPR thumped Barnsley 4-0 and Crystal Palace were 3-0 up at half time at home to Leicester but had to hold on for the last six minutes after the visitors twice in the second half. Hull and Burnley both won – as did three of the four clubs I picked to struggle!

Nottingham Forest, QPR and Sheffield United were the biggest casualties in the first round of the Carling Cup and the draw for the second round features three all Championship games – which means that only nine sides from the division will feature in the third round. It’s been nine seasons since a team from outside the Premiership reached the final of the competition and at this stage it looks unlikely that any of the Championship sides will end that streak.

Looking forward to this weekend, there are three games between teams that started their seasons with wins. Watford take on Coventry City at Vicarage Road, Hull City travel to Millwall and arguably the game of the day on Saturday is Ipswich v Burnley – although eight of the last ten meetings between these two at Portman Road have finished in draws and Burnley haven’t won at Ipswich since January 1970. Sunday’s televised game is between Leeds and Nottingham Forest (ko 1:15pm on Sky Sports 1) could also be a cracker.

There could also be some very early clues about which teams could face an uphill struggle. Having lost at home to Watford, Norwich City travel to Glanford Park to play Scunthorpe United, who won at Reading last weekend and defeated Oldham in the Carling Cup during the week. To add to their woes, Bristol City will be without striker Nicky Maynard until November at the earliest and will not relish the journey to Doncaster Rovers – South Yorkshire has not been a happy hunting ground for the Robins in the past.

Carling Nations Cup

The famous beer brand and regular football partner Carling has been announced as sponsor for the inaugural Carling Nations Cup - A sort of home international tournament that will take place at the new state of the art Aviva Stadium in Ireland.

The competition will be the first senior international football tournament to be hosted in Ireland and the event will kick off on February 8th 2011.

The Republic of Ireland will take on Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in the tournament which will be played in a league format with six matches between the four neighbouring teams, the first two taking place at the Aviva Stadium on February 8 and 9 and the remaining four taking place week commencing Monday May 23.

Carling has been a major sponsor of football for many years, and today’s announcement builds upon its range of other sponsorships which include the Carling Cup in England and Wales, the Carling Premiership in Northern Ireland and most recently its sponsorship of the Scottish national team and Scottish Cup.

FAI Chief Executive John Delaney said; “We are delighted to have secured Carling as the title sponsor for the Carling Nations Cup.  We will be working closely with Carling to make it an exciting festival of football for fans, tapping into the many friendships and local rivalries that exist between the four participating countries. The Carling Nations Cup will be a significant boost for local tourism and businesses in the Dublin area and we look forward to welcoming thousands of fans from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to our new Aviva Stadium in February and May 2011.”

Former Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner, who earned 80 caps and is famously remembered for his penalty save against Romania at the 1990 World Cup, was on hand to lend his support, alongside former internationals Pat Jennings of Northern Ireland, Craig Burley of Scotland and Ian Walsh of Wales.

Speaking at the launch, Packie Bonner said:  “The Carling Nations Cup is going to be a fantastic new tournament for fans of Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and also gives our international teams a chance to compete against each other in a wonderful new stadium. There is always a special atmosphere when international teams from Ireland and Britain play against each other and now we don’t have to rely on being drawn together in World Cup or European Championship qualifying groups.  It’s all very exciting.”

“It’s great to see a brand like Carling, which is a huge supporter of football, lend its support to this tournament.  To use a goalkeeping term, the tournament is in safe hands,” concluded Packie.

The only shame for me is that England are not involved, but have to say that may not be a bad thing.

Middlesbrough – another club with recent Premiership experience – are current favourites. Manager Gordon Strachan has bought in Kris Boyd from Rangers; if Boyd reproduces his outstanding goalscoring record in the Championship, he could be play a vital part in Boro’s promotion bid.

Although the clubs relegated from the Premiership shouldn’t be entirely written off, Burnley look the best equipped for a serious promotion challenge: Chris Iwelumo’s arrival from Wolves looks like a shrewd investment. Both Hull City and Portsmouth have off field issues that could hinder their efforts to make an immediate return to the top tier.

Two of the teams that reached the play offs last season should challenge for promotion places. Nottingham Forest were outstanding at home last season and Leicester City – where former Swansea City boss Paolo Sousa replaces Nigel Pearson as manager – look capable of maintaining their form from 2009/2010. Cardiff City’s prospects are unclear, but they should still be capable of a top ten finish, a prospect that both Ipswich Town and QPR will be hoping to achieve.

It’ll be interesting to see how the new arrivals from League One will perform. Champions Norwich City return after one season but may have to settle for a mid table finish; Leeds United will probably lead the division in attendance numbers, but their season may depend on how well new signing Billy Paynter adapts to the Championship. Millwall should avoid relegation but may have to be content with a bottom half finish in their first season at this level since 2005/2006.

A number of teams look as if they may struggle. Scunthorpe always seem to be punching above their weight but selling Gary Hooper to Celtic leaves The Iron without a proven goal scorer. Barnsley need to improve at home, Crystal Palace entered administration but eventually owed their survival to an outstanding away record that culminated in a win at Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the season.

However, every club in the nPower Football League Championship will start on equal terms when the season starts on the evening of Friday August 6th, when Watford travel to Norwich City (7:45pm kick off, live on Sky Sports 3).

Despite taking Swansea to the brink of the play-offs, Sousa has not endeared himself to the fans, players or board it would appear and the club have decided to allow him to leave sooner rather than later, before too much harm is done within the club.

Leicester City are understood to have agreed a compensation package with Swansea as Sousa still had two years to run on his contract.

Having arrived from a short stint at QPR that lasted just 26 games, Sousa led Swansea to within a point of the play-offs in his first season in charge at the club, but should really have done better in the run in when Swansea picked up just three wins in the final 13 games.

The club boasted 24 clean sheets during the season and the defence shipped just 37 goals throughout, but they also failed to score in 18 of their games and the goal shy attack managed just 40 goals all season.

Despite denials from both parties the relationship between Sousa and club chairman Huw Jenkins has often appeared strained and I get the feeling that Swansea will ultimately be glad to resolve the issue now before too much damage is done.

Nigel pearson joins Hull City

Nigel Pearson has been confirmed as the new Hull City manager, he will replace caretaker Iain Dowie who was hired short term by Hull but failed to keep the club in the Premier League.

Pearson arrives from Leicester City where he has led the club to the League One title and to the Championship play-offs in his two seasons in charge.

Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric said:

“Nigel’s done a fantastic job. It would have been wrong of us to deny him the chance to speak to another club. We were greatly surprised to receive the initial approach from Hull. The past few years have been a turbulent time for both me and the supporters at Leicester City. We have been striving to get a degree of continuity at the club. After speaking to Nigel, we have reluctantly agreed that if he wished to pursue this opportunity at Hull, we would permit it.

I am deeply grateful to him for everything he has done for the club. He has put together the foundations of a strong squad and it is now up to us to find a manager to build on those foundations.”

Hull City’s head of football operations Adam Pearson added:

“We are delighted to welcome a manager of Nigel’s experience and calibre to the club. We feel it is a real coup for Hull City and that Nigel is the best man to mould the existing squad into a competitive Championship squad. Nigel had two outstanding seasons at Leicester City and I feel sure that this experience and winning formula will ensure the very best chance of bringing success back to the club.”

Iain Dowie was hired by Hull with nine games remaining following the departure of Phil Brown in March, he was always on a hiding to nothing but hoped that he had shown enough to be considered as a long term replacement for Brown.

While I am sure he was given consideration, Hull City appear to have shown patience in finding the right man for the job and on the basis of Pearson’s recent managerial history he has to be the right man.

United Against Malaria - Sign the ball

United Against Malaria (UAM) is a collective of individuals and organizations with one goal; to beat this dreadful  disease.

Using the World Cup in South Africa as a focal point, footballers from around the world are united in supporting the cause, among those involved are Cameroon legend Roger Milla, USA striker Landon Donovan, Manchester City and Ivory Coast defender Kolo Toure, Malian striker Frederic Kanoute and French World Cup winner Patrick Vieira.

UAM are using the tournament to promote international awareness of the disease, by acting now, an unprecedented increase in mosquito net coverage across Africa can be achieved by the end of 2010, saving millions of lives by the next World Cup in 2014.

With the tournament now well under way, UAM are asking football fans to ‘Sign the ball’ to show their  support for the cause. Add your name and join the winning team that will beat malaria.

Join the team at UAM by signing the ball on facebook and becoming a Facebook supporter of the campaign and check for latest news and updates on the United Against Malaria website.

Coca-Cola Championship has retained its place as the fourth most watched league in Europe

English football continues to be a big hit with football fans all over the world.

Coca-Cola Championship has retained its place as the fourth most watched league in Europe with a total audience of more than 9.9m fans. Crowds grew by 0.3% this season and averaged 17,949.

Only Germany’s Bundesliga (13.1m), the Premier League (12.9m) and Spain’s La Liga (11.0m) can boast more fans through the turnstiles, with The Football League’s top division, once again, attracting more supporters than Italy’s Serie A (9.1m) and France’s Ligue 1 (7.6m).

Crowds at matches in the Coca-Cola English Football League have broken the seventeen million mark for the first time in 50 years.

A total of 17.1m supporters attended the 1,656 league matches played during 2009/10, an increase of 4.4% on last season and the highest aggregate crowd figure since the 1959/60 campaign.

The Football League continues to enjoy sustained attendance growth with gates having more than doubled during the last 25 years. The average Football League crowd is now higher than 10,000.

Crowds for matches in Coca-Cola League 1 and Coca-Cola League 2 averaged 9,136 and 3,853 respectively, with crowds in the former increasing by a remarkable 21%.

These figures continue to outstrip those of comparable levels of the game in Europe’s other major footballing nations. League 1 crowds are more than 75% greater than those in Germany and more than three times higher than those recorded in Italy and France. League 2, attendances are twice those of their German equivalents and almost five times those of Italian football.

Football League Chairman, Greg Clarke, said: “Attracting more than seventeen million fans into their grounds is an outstanding achievement by Football League clubs, particularly in the current economic climate.

“Our clubs are focussed on attracting a new, family audience to football and those efforts are clearly working.

He went on to add: “I would like to thank everybody that has been to one of our matches this season for supporting their club and our competition.”

Blackpool one step closer to Premier League

A second half hat trick from Blackpool striker D J Campbell stunned Nottingham Forest in last night’s second leg Championship play-off at the City Ground.

Twice coming from behind, Blackpool’s counter attacking game proved decisive as Forest’s unbeaten home run of 20 games disappeared along with their chance of a place in the Premier League.

The writing may have been on the wall prior to the game as Blackpool were the last team to win at Forest and have now beaten their rivals in all four of this seasons games.

Nottingham Forest had scored the early goal in what many critics assumed would be a tight low scoring game, and for seventy odd minutes there was little sign of what was about to happen.

Forest appeared to grab a hold of the game on 66 minutes when Earnshaw put them back in the driving seat to make the score 2-1, but within minutes Blackpool had levelled the score 2-2 on the night.

The tie went in Blackpool’s favour with two goals in quick succesion leaving Forest with a mountain to climb and although they did score another to make the final score 4-3, it was little consolation.

Blackpool’s 6-4 aggregate win takes them to Wembley for the play-off final, where they will meet Cardiff or Leicester for the chance to make next seasons Premier League.