Reading and Middlesbrough are midweek winners

Reading really are the team to watch. Tuesday's home win against Portsmouth was their seventh successive win and it is clear where their strength lies. They've scored just ten goals in those seven wins but conceded only one, that last Saturday when Andy Keogh gave Millwall the lead against them. They've kept a total of 17 clean sheets this season and that's a figure matched just by Hull.

Tuesday's win takes them within two points of West Ham who grabbed a late Ricardo Vaz Te equaliser at home to Watford, and a further point behind Southampton who were the victims of a late equaliser at home to Ipswich.

Middlesbrough are fourth with Blackpool and Birmingham the other teams in the play off positions right now, but it's tight with three teams, Brighton, Cardiff and Hull all within one good result of a place in the top six.

Down at the bottom of the league we have a new bottom club and that's Portsmouth.  Besides not having two pennies to rub together the South coast club have now won just two points in their last seven games. Add that to the ten point deduction for going into administration and it's dumped them right where they belong at the bottom of the league.

They dropped that further place because Doncaster won at Nottingham Forest in a game that would have seen the home side get some considerable breathing space had they won it. Donny, along with Coventry, are now three points clear of Portsmouth who will probably get out of trouble given the way some are bending over backwards to help them again, this time the Football League by allowing them to receive payments.

We didn't play in midweek and it has almost gone unnoticed that we've dropped back into the bottom half of the table courtesy of Crystal Palace, our opponents tomorrow, drawing at Coventry.

Maybe it was the excitement of the FA Youth Cup win at Fulham, but it was only this morning when I checked the league tables that I spotted us in 13th place, the first time we've been in the bottom half since mid-December after the defeat to Portsmouth.

We're back in action this weekend, and there's a full programme. Those fixtures are below along with the midweek results and stats, the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and the highest and lowest attendances.