Gap closes at the top as the cards come out

Chris Iwelumo scored his first Watford goal

They were fortunate to win too, coming back from behind with ten men to get that point at the Madejski with even Southampton boss Nigel Adkins admitting they were fortunate.

Dean Hammond was sent off and it was the busiest week of the season by far for referees. Hammond was one of five players to see red with no less than 51 receiving yellow cards as the Championship went card mad.

The heaviest in terms of cards was our game at Coventry with Graham Scott showing seven yellows and a red. No other side got five yellows this weekend so we were the naughty boys although I remain staggered at how many we did get.

The real talking point was going to be just how much longer Sven Goran Eriksson was going to survive after their 3-0 home defeat against Millwall, a game that saw Darius Henderson get the fourth Championship hat trick of the season.

Now does anyone remember the first hat trick of last season? It was ours, and came from Chris Iwelumo in the 4-3 home win against Preston. By this date last season he'd scored eight times but Saturday saw him get his first goal of this season for Watford. Alas it counted for nothing as they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Hull.

He wasn't the only ex-Claret to score. Rhys Williams deflected in Middlesbrough's first against Derby and, although not credited, Richard Chaplow got the last touch as he tried to keep the ball out of the net at Reading from a Mikele Leigertwood shot.

The significant changes in the league have seen Watford drop into the bottom three whilst Leeds, unbeaten in seven, are now in the play off positions.

Interestingly Nottingham Forest have won two since Steve Cotterill took over as manager. We had a similar surge when Dean Saunders went to Doncaster. The 'honeymoon period' is still going strong. Maybe the way to do well is change manager every month and get a few of these honeymoon periods in during the season. It could guarantee promotion.

Doncaster's hasn't lasted, it will be interesting now to see just how long Forest's lasts.

The usual stats are below, along with the next fixtures.