They are training again at Blackpool and Ipswich are milky

Training is on the menu again at Blackpool

I don't think Palace were a club many thought would be up there when the season started and I don't think there were too many surprised when they lost their first three games against Watford, Middlesbrough and Bristol City.

There was speculation that manager Dougie Freedman was under pressure but then things changed round. In fourteen games since they've not been beaten, winning eleven and drawing three, and they now proudly sit on top of the table.

The run has seen the departure of Selhurst Park legend Freedman. Instead of the poor results landing him the sack, the good results landed himself the job at Bolton who were looking to replace one of their legends.

He's gone, they've had two caretaker managers and now Ian Holloway, who got out of Blackpool, and nothing's changed. It has at Blackpool though, certainly according to long serving defender Ian Evatt who has just about said that Holloway had given up at Bloomfield Road.

Evatt has said today: "In the last couple of months, we hadn't really done much training. We had numerous days off, anything from two to five or six at a time. It was as surprising to the lads as anyone else.

"We are an honest bunch of players and we want to work hard, but at times we weren't doing that. Maybe that's why we had the bad spell that we had. We've knuckled down now. Training has been fantastic in the last ten days or so. It's been hard work but we've needed it."

No matter what, Holloway was the only one of the recent bunch of new Championship managers to secure a win on Saturday. Bolton, Blackpool under Michael Appleton both drew while us and Ipswich were beaten.

Ipswich are doing well away from home. That's 11 goals they've conceded in the two away games since Mick McCarthy took over. The man hasn't been impressed and after the six goal mauling at Ipswich he said: "It was an embarrassing display. Awful to be honest. It hurts me. I pride my teams on being tough and hard to beat, well organised and with the ability to play. but you have to sort the first part of that out first.

"We are milky. We are brittle. But there is nothing I can do about that performance now. We will take the bones out of it and move forward to what is obviously a very important game against Peterborough next week."

Ipswich are currently third from bottom, ahead of just Bristol City and Peterborough, and by only one point. Sheffield Wednesday and then Barnsley are the two clubs hovering closest to the bottom three.

Up at the top, Cardiff beat Middlesbrough to take their automatic promotion position while Huddersfield lost their place in the top six, replaced by Blackburn for whom former Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes bagged a hat trick.

We've a free week now ahead of a full fixture list on Saturday. Those fixtures are below along with the weekend results and stats, the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and the highest and lowest attendances.

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