Another amazing Matchday of Championship football was completed over this week and there were many significant ups and downs.
Steve Bruce continued to weave his magic as the new manager at Aston Villa. Newcastle United tightened their grip on top spot with another comfortable victory and the division lost yet another manager, as Walter Zenga was relieved of his duties at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
There were mixed fortunes for two other clubs towards the bottom of the league with new Cardiff boss Neil Warnock notching up yet another impressive win but Rotherham United’s manager Kenny Jackett was unable to turn his side’s fortunes around as they suffered another loss to leave them languishing at the foot of the table.
Here are 5 things we take away from this Matchday:
#5 Bruce the magician at Villa
Steve Bruce looks to have steadied the ship already at a seemingly troubled club Aston Villa. After just 3 games in charge, Villa and Bruce remain unbeaten and have 1 draw and 2 wins so far since he joined.
His last game, a victory in an otherwise poor 1-0 home win against Fulham now has them looking upward in the league rather than down. This stretch of 3 unbeaten games is now the best run of form Villa have had since nearly 2 and a half years ago in the Premier League!
The former Birmingham City boss (Aston Villa’s local rivals) suggested it was down to belief. “Let's be honest, Villa could easily be nine or 10 points better off, if games lasted 85 minutes," Bruce added.
"Is it a mentality thing? Or does it happen too many times to be a confidence thing. If you've only won four times in 50-odd games, people can get nervous," he continued.
The Fulham game itself was largely forgettable. Jonathan Kodija volleying home with just 10 minutes remaining was the brightest spark in a very dull match. Bruce though was just happy for the team.
"We have made a decent start and I am delighted for the players. A week ago they were quiet. There have been huge changes throughout the club. We have tried to breathe a bit of life back into the players. Thankfully when they respond and get a couple of good results, that does no harm.”
He continued, "We have got to turn things around; Villa Park has been an awful place for too long. Hopefully, this is the start and we are going to go onwards and upwards."
Will this be another false dawn, or will Bruce manage to take them to the top flight?
#2 Stat Attack: Zenga’s time is up and other managerial merry-go-rounds
Wolverhampton Wanderers boss, Walter Zenga was shown the door after just 87 days at the club. With just one point from their last 5 games and the team lying 18th in the Championship table, the Wolves board had clearly seen enough.
"Wolves have announced that Walter Zenga’s contract has been terminated with immediate effect. Stefano Cusin, Assistant Head Coach has also left the Club. Rob Edwards, First Team Coach, has been placed in interim charge of the first team, supported by U-23s Coach, Scott Sellars.
"The Club would like to extend their thanks and best wishes to Walter and Stefano for their contribution to Wolves during the season so far. Wolves will be making no further comment at this stage."
This means that out of this season’s 9 new managerial appointments, 5 of them have been released from their roles.
Roberto di Matteo, Paul Trollope, Nigel Pearson and Alan Stubbs are the other casualties, being sacked from Aston Villa, Cardiff, Derby and Rotherham respectively.
The former Italian International ‘keeper was hired by the new Chinese owners in the summer and replaced Kenny Jackett, who is now at struggling Rotherham United, replacing Alan Stubbs. Stubbs himself had only having taken on the role in the summer after a promising start to his managerial career at Scottish side Hibernian.
The Championship managerial merry-go-round continues. How many more will not see Christmas in their current roles?
#3 Newcastle power on
The faith of the Newcastle fan is at last beginning to be re-paid. The Geordies have now gone unbeaten in their last 8 league and cup matches and have a positive goal difference of 19.
Their victory at home against Ipswich this weekend in front of a 51,963 strong ‘Toon army’ appeared as simple as it was resounding.
The Magpies took the lead within 60 seconds with Ayoze Perez volleying home the fastest goal of the Championship season so far. From then on it seemed that there could only be one winner.
However, it wasn’t until the 73rd minute when the game was well and truly put to bed. Perez once again got on the scoresheet with a low finish. His work wasn’t done for the day, though, until on 78 minutes when he set up Matt Ritchie who curled the ball home to complete the rout.
Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez was quite rightly pleased with the performance, "It's another good win because it's not easy to win in this competition. We played really well in the first half. We had chances and could have scored more goals but we didn't do it so we had to work hard in the second half.”
"It's important to keep confidence high and the only way is working hard. We know every game is difficult and we have to be ready. After the second goal we had more control. It was easy at the end but you could see the difficulty we had at the start of the second half," he went on to add.
Newcastle now sit 3 points clear on top of the Championship table. On current form is anyone going to be able to stop them?
#4 Neil Warnock turns Cardiff’s fortunes
As we all know, football is a result’s business. So who is the man struggling Championship teams turn to? Neil Warnock. In just 3 games, Warnock has turned the club’s results around. Previous to Warnock’s appointment, the Bluebirds had notched up just 2 wins in 11 matches.
Warnock’s previous role as the manager of Rotherham United late last season, saw them go on an 11 game unbeaten run and escape relegation. Cardiff’s last 3 results have yielded 7 points from a possible 9 and have seen City move out of the relegation zone for the first time this season. Do you see a pattern emerging?
Their last game, a 2-1 away win against Nottingham Forest was particularly sweet for the Cardiff manager, as the club’s owners turned his managerial application down during the summer. Warnock didn’t dwell on this however, and concentrated on the game and the 3 points:
"Nottingham Forest are a good side with some very good players. I was hoping for a clean sheet, but once again we've let ourselves down at the death. It was a game we should have won comfortably. I've been asked about promotion. But I just said: 'Let's get out the bottom three first'. We just get carried away, don't we?” he stated.
"We're nowhere near the finished article, but we've got a good bunch of players and the fans get behind us," he added.
I wonder where the Bluebirds will end up in the table?
#5 Rotherham – Bottom and losing touch
Despite the sacking of manager Alan Stubbs and subsequent appointment of Kenny Jackett, the Millers find themselves 12 points adrift at the foot of the table and no sign of the form capable of getting them out.
Their last match (and the first of Jackett’s reign) ended in a 1-0 defeat at home to Reading. The goal coming for the visitors in the 86th minute for Paul McShane, who converted from close range after Lee Camp saved the initial shot by Roy Beeren.
This means that Rotherham have just 6 points from 14 games and with a -19 goal difference, it’s clear that keeping the ball out of their own net must be a priority for the new manager.
The Millers have conceded a massive 33 goals already this season and have won just a single game so far. Manager Jackett can see the large task ahead of him but remained positive that the team could move forward.
"I felt the work-rate, effort and commitment of the players was very good. We went toe-to-toe with Reading. We had a good number of chances and were a threat from set-pieces. We couldn't convert them. We are disappointed to lose the game, but the players have to keep up that effort, work-rate and attitude, and not get too disappointed,” he said.
"There is a lot today we did well as a group. There is enough of the season to get things going. Yes, I definitely feel I can keep them up. Taking six points out of 39 takes its toll on players. But they can't be disappointed," Jackett added.
Will he be able to work his magic like Bruce and Warnock have so far?
