Those wins have made things much more difficult for Burnley. The gap between us and the top six has now increased to six points with a game in hand, somewhat different than three weeks ago when we were just three points behind with two games in hand.
Reading beat Portsmouth on Saturday followed that up with a victory against Preston last night and that's also left Nottingham Forest floundering. Little Billy has a good record regards getting teams into the play offs but his Forest side have hit a poor run of form at just the wrong time.
They've picked up just four points from their last eight games and have now slipped from second in the table to seventh and, unless they can find that form again, will have a difficult task in getting back into that top six. Saturday's home game against Reading is looking set to be a crucial one for them.
QPR are surely just about there. They are now 13 points clear of Cardiff in third place and only a massive change in fortune can prevent them going back to the Premier League for the first time since 1996.
There is just one cloud on the QPR horizon and that's the contractual problems surrounding Alejandro Faurlin. There are seven charges of breach of FA rules and they will be heard by an independent commission on 3rd May.
On the field, they were far too good for Sheffield United on Monday and I don't think I can ever recall seeing a 3-0 winning manager look so dejected at the final whistle. The days of Bryan Robson, Kevin Blackwell and now Micky Adams have certainly changed the club Neil Warnock managed for so long and the club he supports.
Sheffield United now have a major battle to stay up, as do both Preston and Scunthorpe. Of the three, Preston are the one putting some results together, but it looks as though any one of them would have to win at least four of their remaining seven games to have any hope of staying up.
We reaching the point where predictions get that little bit easier and right now I can't see there being too many changes. I think, given current form, Norwich will join QPR in the Premier League and I think Cardiff, Swansea, Leeds and Reading are likely to contest the play offs whilst down below those bottom three will leave us.
Then of course, everything can change in this league. We might just recapture the winning habit we had just a few weeks ago and those above us might start losing again.
The recent results and stats are below along with the league's leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and the next fixtures.
The Weekend Results | |
Saturday 2nd April | |
Bristol City 1 Doncaster 0 | Leeds 4 Nottingham Forest 1 |
Burnley 1 Ipswich 2 | Middlesbrough 3 Leicester 3 |
Cardiff 4 Derby 1 | Norwich 6 Scunthorpe 0 |
Coventry 2 Watford 0 | Preston 2 Swansea 1 |
Crystal Palace 2 Barnsley 1 | Reading 2 Portsmouth 0 |
Hull 0 Millwall 1 | |
Monday 4th April | |
QPR 3 Sheffield United 0 | |
Tuesday 5th April | |
Reading 2 Preston 1 |
The Weekend Stats | |
Biggest win | Norwich 6-0 v Scunthorpe (home) |
Total goals scored | 43 (32 home - 11 away) |
Player scoring most goals | Grant Holt (Norwich) |
Highest Attendance | 29,524 - Leeds v Nottingham Forest |
Lowest Attendance | 11,791 - Preston v Swansea |
Total Yellow Cards | 47 |
Total Red Cards | 4 |
Most cards in a game | Middlesbrough v Leicester (7Y 1R) - Andy Haines |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
22 | Danny Graham (Watford) - includes 1 penalty |
20 | Shane Long (Reading) - includes 5 penalties |
19 | Grant Holt (Norwich) - includes 3 penalties |
17 | Luciano Becchio (Leeds) |
16 | Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff) - includes 1 penalty Max Gradel (Leeds) - includes 2 penalties Scott Sinclair (Swansea) - includes 5 penalties |
15 | Bill Sharp (Doncaster) - includes 4 penalties Adel Taarabt (QPR) - includes 6 penalties |
14 | Steve Morison (Millwall) - includes 1 penalty |
13 | Kris Commons (Derby) - includes 2 penalties Andy King (Leicester) |
12 | Heidar Helguson (QPR) - includes 5 penalties Jay Rodriguez (Burnley) |
11 | Chris Iwelumo (Burnley) Lewis McGugan (Nottingham Forest) - includes 2 penalties David Nugent (Portsmouth) Brett Pitman (Bristol City) - includes 3 penalties Davide Somma (Leeds) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
11th Sep | 3 - Chris Iwelumo - BURNLEY v Preston |
14th Sep | 3 - James Coppinger - DONCASTER v Norwich |
14th Sep | 3 - James Vaughan - CRYSTAL PALACE v Portsmouth |
28th Sep | 3 - Jon Parkin - Leeds v PRESTON |
30th Oct | 3 - Jonny Howson - Scunthorpe v LEEDS |
13th Nov | 3 - Luciano Becchio - LEEDS v Bristol City |
27th Nov | 3 - Grant Holt - NORWICH v Leeds |
28th Dec | 3 - Wes Hoolahan - NORWICH v Sheffield United |
1st Jan | 3 - Jason Puncheon - MILLWALL v Crystal Palace |
5th Feb | 3 - Matt Fryatt - Scunthorpe v HULL |
15th Feb | 3 - Connor Wickham - Doncaster v IPSWICH |
2nd Apr | 3 - Grant Holt - NORWICH v Scunthorpe |
2nd Apr | 3 - Simeon Jackson - NORWICH v Scunthorpe |
2nd Apr | 3 - Yakubu - Middlesbrough v LEICESTER |
Disciplinary Record (all domestic games) | |||||
Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
Barnsley | 58 | 2 | Middlesbrough | 54 | 1 |
Bristol City | 49 | 2 | Millwall | 59 | 5 |
Burnley | 72 | 4 | Norwich | 63 | 3 |
Cardiff | 52 | 1 | Nottingham Forest | 62 | 2 |
Coventry | 62 | 5 | Portsmouth | 72 | 7 |
Crystal Palace | 70 | 6 | Preston | 80 | 5 |
Derby | 67 | 2 | QPR | 60 | 6 |
Doncaster | 42 | 3 | Reading | 63 | 4 |
Hull | 69 | 2 | Scunthorpe | 46 | 3 |
Ipswich | 62 | 4 | Sheffield United | 64 | 10 |
Leeds | 76 | 4 | Swansea | 58 | 2 |
Leicester | 49 | 3 | Watford | 46 | 2 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 9th April | |
Barnsley v Bristol City | Nottingham Forest v Reading |
Derby v Coventry | Portsmouth v Preston |
Doncaster v Cardiff | Scunthorpe v QPR |
Ipswich v Crystal Palace | Sheffield United v Middlesbrough |
Leicester v Burnley | Swansea v Norwich (17:20) |
Millwall v Leeds | Watford v Hull |