First change in top six for three months

Last updated : 06 April 2011 By Tony Scholes

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
3

Grant Holt (Norwich)
Simeon Jackson (Norwich)
Yakubu (Leicester)

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