Around One – Walsall provide the shock of the day

Darren Wrack - scored the goals that brought Wigan's unbeaten run to an end

And it was no fluke result, after Wigan dominated the opening exchanges Walsall over the ninety minutes were the better side on the afternoon and thoroughly deserved their victory. Manager Colin Lee said after the game, "I thought that some of our play in the second-half was outstanding."

Wigan boss Paul Jewell though said, "It was a disappointing way for our winning run to come to an end. We looked jaded and did not take advantage of the chances that we created."

That result meant yet another change at the top of the division and West Brom’s comfortable 3-0 win against strugglers Rotherham saw them claim back top spot. Rob Hulse grabbed another couple of goals to add to an own goal by the Millers’ Shaun Barker.

It wasn’t a brilliant weekend though for the top sides and Sheffield United suffered a third successive home defeat on Friday night at the hands of Reading. Two of those defeats are in the league and it is a record bad run since Neil Warnock took over as manager – and it is the Clarets who are there next.

There’s no doubt that Reading’s first goal shouldn’t have counted early in the game after the home defender was blocked as he went to clear but there was no doubting Nicky Forster’s spectacular winner right on half time.

If Sheffield United might be having a bad time at home but that certainly doesn’t apply to Norwich who have not dropped a point at Carrow Road. Again many visiting supporters, this time Sunderland, were unable to watch the match with the restricted seating and again Norwich were able to pick up maximum points.

Damien Francis - his goal maintained Norwich's 100% home record

West Ham are the draw specialists at home but their 0-0 draw at Cardiff was their first draw away from home.

Cardiff certainly came closest to winning the game and new West Ham boss Alan Pardew said, It's a tough place to come, but I think we showed a lot of character. We invited them to move the ball around but David James showed why he is England's number one with some super saves, we defended well but need to threaten the opposition goal much more."

Preston conceded a penalty at Deepdale that gave Ipswich a point in a 1-1 draw, equalising an earlier first goal of the season for David Healy. The most amazing thing is that there were no complaints about the decision from the Preston manager.

Instead of whinging on this occasion he decided to ignore his own team’s performance and talk about Ipswich. He has tipped them for one of the top two places by the end of the season and described them as the best team in the division.

A crucial penalty decision against them and no tantrums or complaints – what on earth is happening at Deepdale?

Nottingham Forest boss Paul Hart warned of the dangers of complacency before their trip to the Bradford & Bingley Pulse Flamingo Land Valley Parade Stadium and they were very fortunate to come away with all three points.

They fell behind to a Michael Branch goal after just five minutes, equalised through former Bradford player Eoin Jess with just over ten minutes to go and won it with an Andy Reid goal deep into stoppage time. Forest were without Gareth Taylor on Saturday, he was not included in the sixteen.

The result means Bradford City remain next to bottom but five points clear of Franchise who returned to form after their shock win at West Brom. This time they were soundly beaten 3-1 by Watford.

Patrick Suffo - two goals for Coventry at Derby

Stoke scored in stoppage time to earn a home point in the big derby against Crewe. Steve Jones appeared to have won it for Crewe before Greenacre scored that late goal.

Should Crewe have won it? Over to Dario G, "I thought we were going to take all three points but at 1-0 there's always going to be a risk. We should have finished off the second half but the question was were we good enough, the answer was probably not."

Finally another defeat for Crystal Palace. It is difficult to believe they led the table earlier in the season. They are now in 19^th place after going down 1-0 at Gillingham with a goal from David Perpetuini.

In two weeks the Clarets have fallen from 8^th to 16^th in the table although a win on Saturday would have seen us four points higher. It has to be said that we are now finally closer to relegation than the play offs. Just six points above the drop zone and eight points behind the bottom play off place.

It is Carling Cup week this week but there is one league fixture on Tuesday evening. The full fixtures for the week are shown below with all kicking off at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise shown.

Cardiff City v Watford (7:45 p.m.)

Burnley v Cardiff City (1:00 p.m.)
Coventry City v West Ham United
Crewe Alexandra v Reading
Franchise v Bradford City (5:35 p.m.)
Ipswich Town v Gillingham
Millwall v Nottingham Forest
Preston North End v Derby County
Stoke City v Sheffield United
Walsall v Norwich City
Watford v Rotherham United
West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland
Wigan Athletic v Crystal Palace (12:30 p.m.)