Doom and delight in South Yorkshire

Managerial vacancy at Hillsborough

You don't have to look too far to see what why the boards at Barnsley and Wednesday have acted. Just start at the bottom of the league and it is there for all to see.

Barnsley hit bottom spot on Saturday having lost at home to Birmingham; Wednesday are above them only on goal difference as they fell to defeat at Blackpool. They'd started the day one place higher but Yeovil's win at Watford has taken them a point clear of the bottom two.

There were strong rumours that Flitcroft, who replaced Keith Hill two days before the end of 2012, had lost his job a few weeks ago, but they gave him time to turn things round. One point in the last five games is the straw that has broken that particular camel's back.

Other members of his backroom team have gone with him but his assistant manager, former Claret Micky Mellon, has been put in temporary charge.

Over at Wednesday a shock 5-2 home win against Reading four weeks ago is their only win of the season. It allowed some light to shine in through the windows of Hillsborough but they haven't picked up a point since.

Jones has been on a knife edge for some time and it is something of a surprise that Milan Mandaric, given his hiring and firing record, has given him this long.

Early betting suggests a return to Oakwell for Danny Wilson, the manager who took them to the Premier League back in the 1990s, and over in Sheffield Stuart Pearce has been named as bookies' favourite for the post just ahead of Kevin Keegan and Paolo Di Canio.

Down at Doncaster we were thanking their full back Paul Quinn on Saturday. He scored their winner in the 89th minute against QPR to ensure we remained in the top two. Without that goal we would now be sat in third place.

They've done us some favours this season. Just days after we won there they beat Leicester and have now repeated it against QPR. By chance, I bumped into their Director of Football yesterday. I offered thanks on behalf of all Burnley fans and asked him to pass those thanks on to Quinn.

Steve McClaren is settling in well at Derby. They won at Wigan, and  that's no mean task according to the Wigan manager. It's a third successive win for the Rams who have now moved up to fifth in the league, three points behind Blackpool and above Reading on goal difference.

Any sympathy for Wigan or their beleaguered manager Owen Coyle? He's been coming in for some criticism from the home fans after this third successive home defeat in a week. I suspect, following his words, there might be some more criticism coming his way.

He's told the Wigan fans to take a reality check and says they've been spoiled by eight years in the top flight.

"If it comes through expectation then so be it," said Coyle before dashing off to visit family in Scotland.

"The expectation can only come from being in the Premier League because it's not as if Wigan Athletic have been winning games every week for four or five years. Wigan Athletic have been in the bottom three for the last four, five years and managed a few times to escape,"

He added: "If people want to be ultra critical that's the nature of football these days. I'm old enough to deal with that and if they think there's something better then all well and good. That's why we love football, it's all opinion."

It doesn't look to me as if that augurs well for the future.

The weekend results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, the red and yellow card counts for each club, the ten highest and lowest attendances and this midweek's fixtures.