I'd just enjoyed a belated family Christmas meal while discussing the merits of our 2-0 win against Derby, the disappointing attendance, the poor following from Derby and anything else relating to the game and the results elsewhere.
I certainly wasn't expecting any Championship manager to lose his job but had I done so then my money would very definitely have been on Wolves' Ståle Solbakken who is not having the best of starts to his Molineux career.
They'd suffered an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat against bottom club Peterborough. It was the biggest win of the day in the Championship and actually lifted Posh off the bottom as waterlogged Bristol City took over after their home game against the Udinese franchise of Watford had been called off.
It was just a quick look at the television to check the scores and I was attracted by the yellow bar that read 'NOTTINGHAM FOREST SACK SEAN O'DRISCOLL'. Now hang on, I thought, they've just beaten Leeds 4-2 and gone eighth in the table, just one point shy of the play off positions.
I think it's common knowledge that I'm no fan of O'Driscoll's football but surely this wasn't correct.
It was. Those wonderful people ingrained in East Midlands football, the Al Hasawi family of Kuwait, had pulled the plug on a second manager since taking over in the summer.
They said they needed an iconic manager so when they dismissed Steve Cotterill and were then turned down by Mick McCarthy it did come as something as a shock when O'Driscoll got the job. Whatever you may think of him, iconic is not a word that comes readily to mind.
They changed chairman this month amidst rumours of the money running out and this decision was explained by the new chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi (and I thought I had problems spelling Banaszkiewicz).
"We cannot speak highly enough of Sean as a man. He was appointed at an extremely difficult time for the club and can count himself unlucky to have lost his job with the team just one point away from the top six," Mr Al Hasawi said.
He then went on to explain that the players brought in under O'Driscoll were taking longer to settle than they had anticipated. I bet they all feel good this morning with that supportive comment.
The chairman was quickly tweeting about speaking to a Premier League manager. Was it Wenger? Maybe Ferguson? No, the odds on favourite right now is Alex McLeish, he who took Birmingham out of the Premier League and then made a hell of an attempt to do the same at Aston Villa.
Sacking a manager at Christmas - what next? How about sacking one who has only been in the job for 57 days?
To put that into perspective, Sean Dyche has now been Burnley manager for just 58 days. Maybe he needs to be looking over his shoulder if managers are now going so quickly.
Then again, we are not Blackburn Rovers. We don't have an Indian matriarch by the name of Mrs Desai and neither do we have a global advisor to turn our club into the biggest circus since Billy Smart was around.
Yes, the big news is from Ewood again. After their latest defeat at Middlesbrough, where Lukas Jutkiewicz scored the only goal of the game, it was time up for Henning Berg, the former central defender who, despite failing to land the job at Bury, fought off stiff competition to land the Blackburn job on the last day of October.
A couple of weeks ago he lost his first team coach Colin Hendry who was promoted to assistant reserve team coach, and there were rumours that he might lose all his backroom team of Eric Black, Iain Brunskill and Bobby Mimms. There is good news for Berg, he hasn't lost them. They've all gone through the Ewood Park door with him.
It was the briefest of statements from the club this morning after Twitter and message boards carried the speculation. On confirming the departures of all four, they added: "The decision has been taken following a very disappointing sequence of results."
Just over two years ago I despaired at the goings on at Ewood. They'd been taken away from us in the 1990s by the Jack Walker money and now they'd landed on their feet with another big takeover by Venky's.
No matter what happens in the future, I'd like to take this opportunity right now to say a big thank you to the owners. Without them and the wonderful Mrs Desai we might never have heard of Agent Kean, there wouldn't have been a shabby Shebby. There might not have even been chickens on the pitch.
I never thought I'd have the chance to poke fun at them again but from the day they sacked Sam Allardyce, 13th December 2010, it has been wonderful entertainment for us. It's not ended yet. Shebby's still there and he'll provide us all with a few more laughs in the future, the very future he's there to shape.
On the day before we opened our season against Bolton, on a visit to Gawthorpe, Eddie Howe expressed to me how surprised he was that a lot of Burnley supporters weren't keen on having foreign owners.
Maybe he was already planning his trip home to work for the new Russian owner at Bournemouth. Who knows? I know my views haven't changed and the last 24 hours have strengthened them. I'll settle for a man from Nelson with a Polish surname.
There were some games yesterday. The results are below along with the usual stats and the next fixtures.
The Results | |
Wednesday 26th December | |
Barnsley 1 Birmingham City 2 | Huddersfield Town 1 Blackpool 1 |
Bolton Wanderers 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1 | Hull City 0 Leicester City 0 |
Bristol City v Watford - Postponed | Middlesbrough 1 Blackburn Rovers 0 |
Burnley 2 Derby County 0 | Nottingham Forest 4 Leeds United 2 |
Cardiff City 2 Crystal Palace 1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 Peterborough United 3 |
Charlton Athletic 1 Ipswich Town 2 |
The Stats | |
Biggest Win | Peterborough United 3-0 v Wolverhampton Wanderers (away) |
Total Goals Scored | 24 (12 home - 12 away) |
Player Scoring Most Goals 2 |
Curtis Davies (Birmingham City) Billy Sharp (Nottingham Forest) |
Highest Attendance | 26,670 - Nottingham Forest v Leeds United |
Lowest Attendance | 9,191 - Barnsley v Birmingham City |
Total Yellow Cards | 26 |
Total Red Cards | 0 |
Most Cards in a Game | Cardiff City v Crystal Palace (7Y) Ref: Phil Gibbs |
Leading Goalscorers (League Only) | |
20 | Charlie Austin (Burnley) - includes 3 penalties Glenn Murray (Crystal Palace) - includes 7 penalties |
14 | Luciano Becchio (Leeds United) - includes 4 penalties |
13 | Tom Ince (Blackpool) - includes 3 penalties Jordan Rhodes (Blackburn Rovers) - 2 with Huddersfield Town |
12 | Marlon King (Birmingham City) - includes 3 penalties |
11 | David Nugent (Leicester City) - includes 1 penalty Chris Wood (Millwall) |
10 | Craig Mackail-Smith (Brighton & Hove Albion) - includes 2 penalties Matej Vydra (Watford) - includes 2 penalties |
9 | DJ Campbell (Ipswich Town) Troy Deeney (Watford) |
8 | Sone Aluko (Hull City) Craig Davies (Barnsley) - includes 1 penalty Steven Davies (Bristol City) - includes 2 penalties Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) - includes 2 penalties Scott McDonald (Middlesbrough) Theo Robinson (Derby County) Billy Sharp (Nottingham Forest) - includes 2 penalties |
7 | Sam Baldock (Bristol City) - includes 3 penalties Chris Eagles (Bolton Wanderers) Heidar Helguson (Cardiff City) Darius Henderson (Millwall) Lukas Jutkiewicz (Middlesbrough) Pete Whittingham (Cardiff City) - includes 3 penalties |
Hat Tricks | |
Date | Player & Game |
01/09/12 | 3: Pete Whittingham - CARDIFF CITY v Wolverhampton Wanderers |
15/09/12 | 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Peterborough United |
22/09/12 | 3: Glenn Murray - CRYSTAL PALACE v Cardiff City |
22/09/12 | 4: Craig Davies - Birmingham City v BARNSLEY |
23/09/12 | 3: David Nugent - LEICESTER CITY v Hull City |
29/09/12 | 3: Emile Sinclair - Hull City v PETERBOROUGH UNITED |
02/10/12 | 3: Charlie Austin - BURNLEY v Sheffield Wednesday |
23/10/12 | 3: Marlon King - Millwall v BIRMINGHAM CITY |
06/11/12 | 3: Glenn Murray - CRYSTAL PALACE v Ipswich Town |
17/11/12 | 3: Jordan Rhodes - Peterborough United v BLACKBURN ROVERS |
Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) | |||||||||
Club | Y | R | Y | R | Club | Y | R | Y | R |
League | Total | League | Total | ||||||
Barnsley | 32 | 1 | 35 | 2 | Huddersfield Town | 42 | 4 | 43 | 4 |
Birmingham City | 31 | 2 | 33 | 2 | Hull City | 28 | 1 | 28 | 2 |
Blackburn Rovers | 27 | 0 | 27 | 0 | Ipswich Town | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
Blackpool | 35 | 0 | 35 | 0 | Leeds United | 40 | 2 | 45 | 2 |
Bolton Wanderers | 45 | 1 | 47 | 1 | Leicester City | 27 | 1 | 27 | 1 |
Brighton & Hove Albion | 29 | 1 | 30 | 1 | Middlesbrough | 30 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
Bristol City | 29 | 0 | 31 | 0 | Millwall | 45 | 2 | 47 | 2 |
Burnley | 44 | 1 | 50 | 1 | Nottingham Forest | 40 | 4 | 40 | 4 |
Cardiff City | 44 | 2 | 46 | 2 | Peterborough United | 38 | 0 | 39 | 0 |
Charlton Athletic | 36 | 0 | 36 | 0 | Sheffield Wednesday | 43 | 1 | 46 | 1 |
Crystal Palace | 35 | 2 | 39 | 2 | Watford | 42 | 4 | 43 | 4 |
Derby County | 27 | 1 | 28 | 1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 21 | 1 | 23 | 1 |
Highest and Lowest Attendances | |||
Highest | Lowest | ||
Att | Fixture | Att | Fixture |
28,707 | Nottingham Forest v Derby County (30/09) | 5,435 | Peterborough United v Bristol City (18/09) |
28,582 | Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds United (19/10) | 5,633 | Peterborough United v Blackpool (01/12) |
28,229 | Middlesbrough v Sheffield Wednesday (09/11) | 5,997 | Peterborough Utd v Blackburn Rovers (17/11) |
27,437 | Derby County v Sheffield Wednesday (18/08) | 6,188 | Peterborough United v Millwall (21/08) |
26,684 | Brighton & HA v Nottingham Forest (15/12) | 6,348 | Peterborough Utd v Huddersfield Town(23/10) |
26,670 | Nottingham Forest v Leeds United (26/12) | 6,600 | Peterborough Utd v Bolton Wand (23/12) |
26,598 | Sheffield Wed v Bolton Wanderers (22/09) | 6,612 | Peterborough Utd v Middlesbrough (08/12) |
26,594 | Brighton & HA v Sheffield Weds (14/09) | 8,088 | Barnsley v Bristol City (01/09) |
26,455 | Brighton & Hove Albion v Bolton Wand (24/11) | 8,195 | Barnsley v Crystal Palace (23/10) |
26,402 | Brighton & Hove Albion v Leeds United (02/11) | 8,227 | Barnsley v Cardiff City (24/11) |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 29th December | |
Barnsley v Blackburn Rovers | Charlton Athletic v Derby County |
Bolton Wanderers v Birmingham City | Huddersfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday (12:30) |
Brighton & Hove Albion v Watford (17:20) | Hull City v Leeds United (12:30) |
Bristol City v Peterborough United | Middlesbrough v Blackpool |
Burnley v Leicester City | Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace |
Cardiff City v Millwall | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Ipswich Town |