Cardiff back on top after another week of strange results

It'd been a fun week at Leeds. It looks as though the takeover is all but done but then, wait, Ken Bates is remaining as chairman until the end of the season and then becoming president. No wonder Leeds fans are sceptical about what's happening.

What happened on Saturday, however, is they ended a run of seven games without a win by beating Crystal Palace who hadn't lost in 14 games. It was hardly the home banker but they won through with goals from Luciano Becchio and Paul Green.

If that result was a surprise then Middlesbrough's home defeat to Bristol City was the shock, the result that had many tearing up their losing coupons on Saturday night. Middlesbrough's only home defeat had come against Leicester in September and Bristol City, struggling at the bottom, were without a win since mid-September and the draw against Blackpool the previous week had ended a run of seven straight defeats.

As the fog descended on the Riverside it all went wrong for Middlesbrough. At 1-1 they thought they'd scored again only for the assistant referee not to be able to see through the fog as it crossed the line.

Manager Tony Mowbray was disappointed but said: "Things just didn't go to plan, but you can't over analyse it. We are still in the top six and there are still plenty of games to play."

Joining them in the top six are Millwall. When they played us on the last Saturday in September their late goal from Darius Henderson rescued them a point and ensured they didn't suffer a fourth successive defeat.

That was the start of a run of eleven games, six won and one drawn, that have seen them surge up the table. They were 21st in the table both before and after that game at Burnley. They are now sixth and have displaced Blackburn in the play off positions having beaten them at Ewood Park on Saturday. They won it with two good strikes from outside the box through Chris Wood and James Henry.

It's left Blackburn in ninth place but the other two North West clubs, Blackpool and Bolton, are both below us. Blackpool, whose players are just about getting used to having to train again, got a third successive draw at home to Watford and Bolton also drew, their point coming at Brighton.

It was a somewhat fortunate point too. Brighton missed a penalty and hit the woodwork three times and then saw David Ngog rescue a point with a goal deep into stoppage time.  Bolton boss Dougie Freedman described Brighton's performance as wonderful but said his players dug in. Maybe Mr Freedman isn't yet aware that he's taken over a squad where all the dirty work has been done and they are ready for a return to the Premier League. That should augur well for the future.

There's another full programme this midweek with eleven games tomorrow and an interesting encounter at Ewood Park on Wednesday. Those fixtures can be found below the results and usual stats after the weekend fixtures.