Since the last Championship update there have, inevitably, been some more managerial changes. Danny Wilson was chosen to replace David Flitcroft at Barnsley. Whether they will begin to play like Brazil again I doubt and I suspect Wilson won't be edging them near the Premier League anytime soon either.
Gianfranco Zola decided he'd had enough of managing the Udinese development squad based in Hertfordshire and playing Championship football under the name of Watford. His replacement down the Yellow Brick Vicarage Road is Guiseppi Sannino. I can't say too much about him to be honest. The simple truth is I'd never heard of him until he turned up as Zola's replacement.
Millwall decided half a season was enough for Steve Lomas. Never wanted by the Millwall fans because of his West Ham connections, he was sacked on Boxing Day with Millwall legend (and he scored considerably more than 12 goals for them) Neil Harris being placed in temporary charge.
Harris has ruled himself out and right now the favourite for the job is Ian Holloway with Dave Jones, recently removed from the hot seat at Sheffield Wednesday, just behind him in the betting.
Our former coach Stuart Gray remains in charge at Hillsborough. He was given a further two games to prove himself by owner Milan Mandaric and he promptly won the first of them against Blackpool. He could be the new permanent manager by the time they pitch up at the Turf in two weeks time.
Blackpool had beaten Wednesday at the end of November at Bloomfield Road but it has been disaster ever since for those with a preference for donkeys. Their 1-1 home draw against Leeds on Boxing Day is their only point in the last seven games.
The natives are not too enamoured with manager Paul Ince right now and were probably hopeful he would land the Cardiff job when he suddenly found himself high in the betting. Not to be and they could be the team that finds itself sliding all the way down towards the bottom in the second half of the season.
Yeovil and Barnsley occupy the bottom two places. Both have 17 points and have now been joined in the relegation places by Doncaster who have four points more. Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall are hovering just above.
Then it's Charlton where there could be changes soon. Manager Chris Powell believes his long term future might not be too secure with the club now in talks with potential new owners from Belgium, the current owners of Standard Liege.
Up at the top of the league, having dropped out of the automatic promotion places last Sunday we duly climbed back into them with the win against Huddersfield. It's very tight now at the top. We have a one point lead over QPR and are a further two points ahead of Derby.
Significantly our lead over seventh place, currently occupied by Brighton, is now 11 points. And for those with their glass more than half empty, we are now 26 points clear of the relegation places. I think we should have no concerns on that score this season.
It's break time now for the FA Cup with the next fixtures coming in just over a week's time. By the time we travel to Yeovil we could be seven points behind Leicester or we could be in third place as Leicester play Derby in front of the Sky cameras on the Friday night.
Those fixtures are shown below along with the New Year's Day results and stats, the leading goalscorers, each club's red and yellow card count and the highest and lowest attendances.
| The Results | |
| Wednesday 1st January | |
| BIRMINGHAM 1 BARNSLEY 1 | LEEDS 1 BLACKBURN 2 |
| BOLTON 2 MIDDLESBROUGH 2 | MILLWALL 1 LEICESTER 3 |
| BRIGHTON 1 BOURNEMOUTH 1 | QPR 2 DONCASTER 1 |
| BURNLEY 3 HUDDERSFIELD 2 | READING 1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 |
| DERBY 0 WIGAN 1 | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2 BLACKPOOL 0 |
| IPSWICH 1 CHARLTON 1 | YEOVIL v WATFORD - postponed |
| The Stats | |
| Biggest Win | LEICESTER 3-1 v MILLWALL (away) SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2-0 v BLACKPOOL (home) |
| Total Goals Scored | 30 (15 home - 15 away) |
| Player Scoring Most Goals | DANNY INGS (BURNLEY) v HUDDERSFIELD MARTIN PATERSON (HUDDERSFIELD) v BURNLEY |
| Highest Attendance | 30,145 - LEEDS v BLACKBURN |
| Lowest Attendance | 10,014 - MILLWALL v LEICESTER |
| Total Yellow Cards | 40 |
| Total Red Cards | 0 |
| Most Cards in a Game | READING v NOTTINGHAM FOREST (7Y 1R) Ref: MICHAEL OLIVER |
| Leading Goalscorers (League Only) | |
| 17 | ROSS McCORMACK (LEEDS) - includes 1 penalty |
| 16 | JORDAN RHODES (BLACKBURN) - includes 3 penalties |
| 15 | DANNY INGS (BURNLEY) - includes 1 penalty |
| 12 | CHRIS MARTIN (DERBY) - includes 3 penalties DAVID NUGENT (LEICESTER) - includes 7 penalties |
| 11 | CHARLIE AUSTIN (QPR) - includes 3 penalties CRAIG BRYSON (DERBY) TROY DEENEY (WATFORD) - includes 3 penalties DAVID McGOLDRICK (IPSWICH) - includes 1 penalty |
| 10 | LEWIS GRABBAN (BOURNEMOUTH) - includes 2 penalties JAMES VAUGHAN (HUDDERSFIELD) - includes 2 penalties SAM VOKES (BURNLEY) - includes 2 penalties |
| 9 | ALBERT ADOMAH (MIDDLESBROUGH) |
| 7 | TOM INCE (BLACKPOOL) - includes 3 penalties ADAM LE FONDRE (READING) - includes 2 penalties DARYL MURPHY (IPSWICH) CHRIS O'GRADY (BARNSLEY) - includes 1 penalty ANDY REID (NOTTINGHAM FOREST) MATT SMITH (LEEDS) JAMIE VARDY (LEICSTER) JAMIE WARD (DERBY) CONNOR WICKHAM (SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY) |
| Hat Tricks | |
| Date | Player & Game |
| 10/08/13 | 3: TROY DEENEY - WATFORD v BOURNEMOUTH (home) |
| 24/08/13 | 3: JAMES VAUGHAN - HUDDERSFIELD v BOURNEMOUTH (home) |
| 14/09/13 | 3: CRAIG BRYSON - DERBY v MILLWALL (away) |
| 21/09/13 | 4: JESSE LINGARD - BIRMINGHAM v SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (home) |
| 10/11/13 | 4: ROSS McCORMACK - LEEDS v CHARLTON (away) |
| 07/12/13 | 4: CHRIS MARTIN - DERBY v BLACKPOOL (home) |
| Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) | |||||||||
| Club | Y | R | Y | R | Club | Y | R | Y | R |
| League | Total | League | Total | ||||||
| BARNSLEY | 33 | 3 | 33 | 3 | IPSWICH | 28 | 1 | 29 | 1 |
| BIRMINGHAM | 43 | 2 | 50 | 3 | LEEDS | 38 | 1 | 41 | 1 |
| BLACKBURN | 42 | 3 | 44 | 4 | LEICESTER | 30 | 1 | 33 | 1 |
| BLACKPOOL | 41 | 9 | 42 | 9 | MIDDLESBROUGH | 37 | 4 | 37 | 4 |
| BOLTON | 41 | 1 | 41 | 1 | MILLWALL | 37 | 4 | 38 | 4 |
| BOURNEMOUTH | 39 | 3 | 41 | 3 | NOTTINGHAM FOREST | 50 | 3 | 56 | 3 |
| BRIGHTON | 42 | 2 | 43 | 2 | QPR | 33 | 1 | 34 | 1 |
| BURNLEY | 32 | 2 | 37 | 3 | READING | 45 | 3 | 49 | 3 |
| CHARLTON | 31 | 2 | 34 | 2 | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY | 44 | 1 | 44 | 2 |
| DERBY | 37 | 2 | 43 | 2 | WATFORD | 45 | 0 | 50 | 0 |
| DONCASTER | 34 | 2 | 35 | 2 | WIGAN | 39 | 2 | 43 | 2 |
| HUDDERSFIELD | 37 | 2 | 41 | 2 | YEOVIL | 46 | 1 | 53 | 1 |
| Highest and Lowest Attendances | |||
| Highest | Lowest | ||
| Att | Fixture | Att | Fixture |
| 33,432 | LEEDS v BRIGHTON (03/08) | 5,530 | YEOVIL v BLACKPOOL (03/12) |
| 31,031 | LEEDS v BARNSLEY (21/12) | 6,053 | YEOVIL v CHARLTON (03/12) |
| 30,416 | LEICESTER v NOTT'M FOREST (09/11) | 6,149 | YEOVIL v WIGAN (10/11) |
| 30,367 | LEEDS v MIDDLESBROUGH (23/11) | 6,454 | DONCASTER v MILLWALL (29/12) |
| 30,145 | LEEDS v BLACKBURN (01/01) | 6,476 | YEOVIL v LEICESTER (01/10) |
| 28,282 | BRIGHTON v BOURNEMOUTH (01/01) | 6,620 | DONCASTER v YEOVIL (23/11) |
| 28,276 | NOTTINGHAM FOREST v DERBY (28/09) | 6,769 | DONCASTER v BOURNEMOUTH (31/08) |
| 28,070 | NOTT'M FOREST v BOURNEMOUTH (19/10) | 6,873 | YEOVIL v BRIGHTON (19/10) |
| 27,912 | BRIGHTON v BLACKBURN (09/11) | 7,047 | YEOVIL v DERBY (24/08) |
| 27,755 | BRIGHTON v NOTTM FOREST (05/10) | 7,170 | YEOVIL v BLACKBURN (21/12) |
| The Next Fixtures | |
| Friday 10th January | |
| LEICESTER v DERBY | |
| Saturday 11th January | |
| BLACKBURN v DONCASTER | IPSWICH v QPR |
| BLACKPOOL v MIDDLESBROUGH | SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY v LEEDS (12:15) |
| BOLTON v NOTTINGHAM FOREST | WATFORD v READING |
| BRIGHTON v BIRMINGHAM | WIGAN v BOURNEMOUTH |
| CHARLTON v BARNSLEY | YEOVIL v BURNLEY |
| HUDDERSFIELD v MILLWALL | |