A Tale of New Managers

They always reckon that a new man gives a team a lift and that seemed to be very much the case as the results came in for all but one of the teams. We gave Sean Dyche a win in his first game against Wolves, and so did bottom of the league Ipswich who enjoyed a 1-0 win at Birmingham as Mad Mick McCarthy took over.

Freedman saw his Bolton side come from a goal behind to beat league leaders Cardiff and Ian Holloway, clearly a man who had been desperate to get out of Blackpool, was introduced to the Palace fans as they beat Blackburn 2-0.

Blackburn, yes, the one team with a new man who weren't able to get any points. It's a welcome to Agent Henning Berg, the strangest of appointments that managing director Derek Shaw, the former bumbling chairman of Preston, struggled to enthuse over.

Shabby Shebby was happy enough. He'd got his man, well once he'd failed with his attempts to lure any of Tim Sherwood, Billy McKinlay, Harry Redknapp or Diego Maradona. Agent Berg isn't under any pressure at Ewood, other than he must, as a minimum, win promotion this season.

I like Shebby. I'm not sure what a global advisor is supposed to do. I was disappointed with him when he forced Agent Kean out but, let's be fair, this comedic figure is proving to be very entertaining for the Burnley fans watching with interest.

Looking at the league table, Cardiff are still top despite the defeat at Bolton, but it is only now because of their goal difference. Middlesbrough have caught them after beating Charlton 4-1 at the Valley.

There were three 4-1 winners but the most surprising was surely Millwall's at Nottingham Forest. When Millwall came to the Turf in September they did so on the back of three successive defeats. They've been unbeaten since and that's seven games, three of which have been won and four drawn.

They are sat just one place behind us now but the league remains very tight. We are the top club in the bottom half of the league, but had we won just one of the games that ended in defeat we'd have been level on points with the team in sixth place. That's come with the boost of nine points from the last four games.

The new managers go into their next games in charge tonight. Agent Berg will be at Huddersfield.

The results from the weekend along with the stats, the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record, the highest and lowest attendances and tonight's fixtures are all below.