As we head toward the Christmas Holiday period for the Sky Bet Championship, there was anything but rest and relaxation in the teams’ minds. All teams played twice this week and are now looking forward to an even busier festive fixture list.
There was another managerial exit, a new leader at the top of the league (for a few hours at least) as well as the bottom club finally managing a victory! Plus, which Man United Legend’s son helped Derby County keep up their winning streak? And mixed fortunes for one of the other playoff hopefuls. All that and more in the Sky-Bet Championship Round-up!
#1 Rowett has the Blues as Zola steps in
Another week, another managerial casualty in the Championship! This time from a slightly unusual source. Birmingham City, currently lying 8th in the Championship and having 3 wins from the last 5 decided to part company this week with their manager Gary Rowett after 2 years with the club.
Club Director Panos Pavlakis said of Rowett: "Such a parting of the ways is always difficult, particularly so on a personal level as I have worked very closely with Gary and have got to know him well. Our relationship was very strong but in football you can never stand still.”
That means that in this calendar year, 15 of the 24 Championship clubs have changed their manager at least once. The board at Birmingham wasted no time in appointing his successor, however. Less than 6 hours after the last manager departed, in walked the new one. Former Chelsea and Italy striker, Gianfranco Zola.
Zola’s previous clubs include West Ham, Cagliari and Watford. The former Chelsea star’s last managerial place was with Qatari side Al-Arabi, but he was sacked in June after just one season with them. Never-the-less, the Birmingham board must see something in him. Pavlakis, in particular, spoke very highly of him.
"His pedigree, philosophy and ambition fits with what we would like to achieve as we move in a new direction. Gianfranco has a wealth of top-level experience as both manager and player and we are extremely excited about his appointment."
Whether this will be an inspired appointment, or a monumental error, only time will tell.
#2 Newcastle and Brighton flip-flop at the top
The race for top spot in the Championship is hotting up nicely. Newcastle United looked to be running away with the league at one stage, but their recent stuttering and Brighton being 15 games unbeaten and winning 7 of their last 9 games, it looks like this could go all the way.
Their meeting in Brighton on the 28th of January could already be seen as a potential title decider and with both teams winning both their games on matchday’s 20 and 21, it will continue to be too close to call. The Geordies beat Birmingham City 4-0 and then travelled to Wigan and won 0-2. Brighton beat Leeds 2-0 and then went to Blackburn and managed to grab a 2-3 victory.
It will be key in the run up to that game that the teams maintain their good form. Newcastle’s next 2 fixtures see them away to struggling Burton Albion and then at home to playoff hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday.
Brighton’s next 2 games pit them away against Gianfranco Zola’s new charges, Birmingham City and then at home to inconsistent QPR. Both teams will approach all their games believing they can win them and that will make the second half of this season a vital one to keep an eye on.
Who will ultimately come out on top in May?
#3 Ince-pired Derby County
It’s fair to say that Rams Boss Steve McClaren has turned things around in a very short space of time. His side has now earned 25 out of a possible 30 points since he has been at the helm and boast one of the meanest defences in the league.
His team have gone 5 games (over 450 minutes) without conceding a single goal and have won all of their last 7 matches. They now lie 5th in the table and must be strong favourites for at least a playoff place at the end of the season.
Their latest 2 matches, a 3-0 victory at home to Nottingham Forest and a 0-1 win away at QPR have demonstrated their consistency across one of the most challenging leagues in the world. The form of one player in particular, attacking midfielder Tom Ince, will no doubt have Premier League scouts queuing to get into Pride Park before the January transfer window opens.
Tom the son of Paul Ince, the legendary Man United midfielder is proving his worth to Steve McClaren this season and has 6 goals in his last 6 games for the Rams. The Derby Boss knows he has something special and said he was the difference during the 0-1 victory at QPR:
"It looked a draw all the way, but we got that moment and we've got one of those players that can get that moment in Tom Ince. He's got that defining moment in him. I've always found him a damn good player and he's proving it."
Can he and Derby continue their fantastic run?
#4 Leeds bounce back
It would have been easy for Leeds United to have given in and accepted that they weren’t quite ready for the playoffs this season. The Yorkshire Club’s last 4 matches have included table-topping Newcastle, second placed Brighton and 3rd placed Reading.
If that wasn’t enough, last Wednesday their Chairman Massimo Cellino was banned for 18 months for breaching football agent rules. However, their boss Gary Monk showed that his team are resilient enough to come through all that with a fantastic performance and win against Reading during matchday 21.
His team scored early in the first half through their top scorer Chris Wood who was then taken off injured. The match was finished off late in second half injury time via a penalty converted by Souleymane Doukara.
Monk was concerned that his top scorer could face time out, during the busiest time of the season, but rightly praised his players: "Chris Wood's just got hamstring tightness, we won't know for another 24 hours. It didn't look like a bad one where I was, but we will have to wait. You can see already we can't afford to lose anymore but credit to those players, they're digging in.
"Physically it's hard for them but we don't want to lose Woody, who has been integral to what we're doing."
Leeds’s next games include a home match against mid-table Brentford and then a Boxing day trip to Preston. Will they be able to stay in contention for the playoffs?
#5 Rotherham win! And then lose again….
Just when you think your season can finally get going, you’re brought back down to earth with a bang. That’s what happened to Rotherham this week.
They got their first win since August against QPR on Matchday 20. A narrow 1-0 victory that moved them into double points in the League table. This, however, was only a temporary reprieve and normal service was resumed on Matchday 21.
Their away match against promotion hopefuls Fulham started very promisingly for the Millers as they went 1-0 up on19 minutes via a 20-yard strike from Joe Newell.
Unfortunately for Rotherham, the Fulham fans were the ones cheering soon after as an equaliser came on 32 minutes via a Stefan Johansen goal. The game was finally put to bed by Floyd Ayite, turning in a Lucas Piazon cross.
Millers C=caretaker manager Paul Warne was frustrated but proud of the effort his team showed:
"We have worked hard with the lads; we knew they were a very good team. I knew it was a hard ask. We prepared well, the lads believed they were going to get something out of the game, and I thought in the first 20 minutes we were really dangerous on the counter-attack.
"We should have gone one up earlier than we did, but I also knew they would keep coming at us. I asked the lads to give me everything and they did."
