Last weekend saw the second managerial casualty of the season: Kevin Blackwell parted company with Sheffield United after the Blades were soundly beaten at Bramall Lane by QPR. Blackwell had been United’s manager since February 2008 and led them to the 2009 play off final.
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.
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