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It's certainly Cardiff and Forest who are struggling most for results at the moment. Cardiff have won just twice in their last six games but for Forest it is much worse with only one win in the last eight games and that includes just one point in three games against the current bottom three clubs in the division.
Forest's latest defeat gave Sheffield United boss Micky Adams his first win since taking over and they were able to do it despite missing a penalty at 1-0 down. They are still in some serious trouble down at the bottom but nothing like the problems facing Preston, the Championship's longest serving club.
With just five wins all season it now looks as though it would take a miracle for them to stay up and there is no sign of anything resembling a miracle on the horizon. The hard facts are that they have not won since a 1-0 victory against Ipswich in mid-December. It's 6 points from a possible 42 since then and they are now 13 points behind the safe position of 21st with just 11 games remaining.
They will now, without question, be relegated, with Sheffield United and Scunthorpe still the favourites to join them.
Back to the top, it was Leeds who beat Preston whilst the other winners in the top six were Norwich who had an excellent 3-2 win at Leicester. They got another penalty too but Wes Hoolahan this time was not allowed to take it after his efforts on Saturday.
QPR are still well clear at the top, for now that is. They lost for only the fourth time this season when they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Millwall and now their only concern is the potential for having points deducted over third party ownership of Alejandro Faurlin.
Sheffield United sat in hope when West Ham faced a similar sanction over the signings of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. I don't think the clubs just behind QPR should be holding their breath on this one.
Three wins in three now for Burnley and that's been matched only by Bristol City, the league's other form team. It's no time to be losing form right now as Cardiff and Nottingham Forest will find to their cost if they don't turn things round very quickly.
The latest results and stats are below along with leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and the next fixtures.
The Midweek Results | |
Tuesday 8th March | |
Barnsley 2 Scunthorpe 1 | Leicester 2 Norwich 3 |
Bristol City 2 Portsmouth 1 | Middlesbrough 2 Derby 1 |
Crystal Palace 1 Cardiff 0 | Millwall 2 QPR 0 |
Doncaster 1 Coventry 1 | Preston 1 Leeds 2 |
Hull 0 Burnley 1 | Sheffield United 2 Nottingham Forest 1 |
Ipswich 1 Reading 3 | Swansea 1 Watford 1 |
The Midweek Stats | |
Biggest win | Millwall 2-0 v QPR (home) |
Total goals scored | 32 (17 home - 15 away) |
Player scoring most goals | 2 - Marlon Harewood (Barnsley) |
Highest Attendance | 23,398 - Leicester v Norwich |
Lowest Attendance | 7,921 - Doncaster v Coventry |
Total Yellow Cards | 27 |
Total Red Cards | 1 |
Most cards in a game | Middlesbrough v Derby (4Y) - Karl Evans |
The leading scorers (league only) | |
18 | Danny Graham (Watford) - includes 1 penalty |
18 | Shane Long (Reading) - includes 5 penalties |
16 | Luciano Becchio (Leeds) |
15 | Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff) Grant Holt (Norwich) - includes 1 penalty Bill Sharp (Doncaster) - includes 4 penalties Scott Sinclair (Swansea) - includes 5 penalties Adel Taarabt (QPR) - includes 6 penalties |
14 | Max Gradel (Leeds) - includes 2 penalties |
13 | Kris Commons (Derby) - includes 2 penalties Andy King (Leicester) |
12 | Steve Morison (Millwall) - includes 1 penalty |
11 | Chris Iwelumo (Burnley) Lewis McGugan (Nottingham Forest) - includes 2 penalties Davide Somma (Leeds) |
10 | Heidar Helguson (QPR) - includes 4 penalties Wes Hoolahan (Norwich) - includes 4 penalties Leroy Lita (Middlesbrough) - includes 2 penalties David Nugent (Portsmouth) Brett Pitman (Bristol City) - includes 3 penalties Marvin Sordell (Watford) |
Hat Tricks (league only) | |
11th Sep | 3 - Chris Iwelumo - BURNLEY v Preston |
14th Sep | 3 - James Coppinger - DONCASTER v Norwich |
14th Sep | 3 - James Vaughan - CRYSTAL PALACE v Portsmouth |
28th Sep | 3 - Jon Parkin - Leeds v PRESTON |
30th Oct | 3 - Jonny Howson - Scunthorpe v LEEDS |
13th Nov | 3 - Luciano Becchio - LEEDS v Bristol City |
27th Nov | 3 - Grant Holt - NORWICH v Leeds |
28th Dec | 3 - Wes Hoolahan - NORWICH v Sheffield United |
1st Jan | 3 - Jason Puncheon - MILLWALL v Crystal Palace |
5th Feb | 3 - Matt Fryatt - Scunthorpe v HULL |
15th Feb | 3 - Connor Wickham - Doncaster v IPSWICH |
Disciplinary Record (all domestic games) | |||||
| Club | Y | R | Club | Y | R |
| Barnsley | 53 | 2 | Middlesbrough | 51 | 1 |
| Bristol City | 45 | 2 | Millwall | 54 | 4 |
| Burnley | 63 | 4 | Norwich | 61 | 3 |
| Cardiff | 47 | 1 | Nottingham Forest | 53 | 1 |
| Coventry | 53 | 5 | Portsmouth | 63 | 6 |
| Crystal Palace | 65 | 5 | Preston | 75 | 5 |
| Derby | 64 | 2 | QPR | 57 | 6 |
| Doncaster | 41 | 3 | Reading | 59 | 4 |
| Hull | 64 | 2 | Scunthorpe | 43 | 2 |
| Ipswich | 53 | 4 | Sheffield United | 58 | 8 |
| Leeds | 72 | 3 | Swansea | 55 | 2 |
| Leicester | 40 | 2 | Watford | 38 | 1 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 12th March | |
Burnley v Millwall | Portsmouth v Middlesbrough |
Coventry v Hull | QPR v Crystal Palace |
Derby v Swansea | Scunthorpe v Leicester |
Leeds v Ipswich | Watford v Sheffield United |
Nottingham Forest v Doncaster | |
Sunday 13th March | |
Cardiff v Barnsley | |
Monday 14th March | |
Norwich v Bristol City | |