Southampton go clear at the top

Ross Wallace - scored against Reading last season

Southampton were always on to a winner once leading scorer had netted the first of their two penalties against Watford and they were ahead of the field once Middlesbrough finally dropped some away points, held to a 0-0 draw at Reading.

Derby could have drawn level in the evening game but were on the end of a 4-0 thrashing at Leicester, the same score by which Southampton had beaten Watford.

It wasn't the biggest score of the day though. Blackpool got that as they went nap against struggling Bristol City who look almost certain to dispense with the services of manager Keith Millen during the international break.

The West Country club have slipped to bottom place with the resurgent Doncaster winning at Peterborough, giving them seven points in the last three games since Dean Saunders became boss. It will be interesting to see how long the new manager honeymoon lasts at the Keepmoat.

Millwall and Coventry share the relegation places and thanks to our win at the Den it has taken us a healthy five points clear of those two clubs. We are now just as close to the play offs and Hull City who have moved into that top six on the back of an unbeaten run of six games.

Forest well and truly brought the weekend to an end. They managed to turn a 1-0 lead against Birmingham into a 3-1 defeat by conceding three goals in the last quarter of an hour and then confirmed the departure of manager Steve McClaren after just ten league games in the job. The poor man only managed a few non-Pleat days at the City Ground.

It's two weeks to the next fixtures and the Clarets will face Reading at home, hoping to get some revenge for the results against them last season. Everything went wrong at home in a 4-0 defeat whilst there is no way we should have lost the game at the Madejski with Stuart Gray in charge. Having taken the lead through Ross Wallace and missed a number of good chances we were beaten 2-1 with two Shane Long goals.

The weekend's results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record, the highest and lowest attendances and the next fixtures.