Buzzin Championship Football

I must admit I’m feeling a bit pleased with myself – I wrote this post in December and I felt both Blackburn and Millwall were in with a chance of decent FA Cup runs this season, although before I get carried away I also thought Barnsley wouldn’t get past Burnley in the third round.

None of the three teams have been strangers to the latter stages of the competition over the last decade. Of course, Blackburn were a Premier League team until last season, so you’d expect them to have done well in the past, but Rovers haven’t got past the fifth round since 2009. Milwall reached the final in Cardiff in 2004 and Barnsley lost  to Cardiff in the semi finals in 2008, but this is only the second time the Lions have got this far since 1985. Barnsley last reached the 6^th Round in 1998.

You’ve got to fear for Barnsley though. If they don’t lose to Manchester City tomorrow (EPSN, 5:30pm) it’ll be seen as a massive surprise: the Tykes’ last three games against last season’s Premier League winners have seen them lose by two, four and six goals and they’ve not won in Manchester for sixteen years. Chris Dagnall is the Yorkshire club’s leading scorer in the competition this season with three goals, but he’s yet to come up against a Premier League defence.

Millwall and Blackburn play on Sunday (ESPN, 2:00pm) and in an odd twist of fate, they were supposed to be playing at the New Den in a league game this weekend. It appears that both clubs have abandoned any hopes of the playoffs to concentrate on the Cup and I find myself wondering if there’s ever been a quarter final with two teams in such poor recent form. Millwall haven’t won at home in the league since New Year’s Day: their last win was against Villa. Blackburn haven’t won an away game since the middle of last month, when they beat Arsenal. The protagonists have only met twice in the FA Cup and Blackburn won both games.

Back to the bread and butter now. Cardiff get a week off due to Barnsley’s involvement in the FA Cup and although their lead could be cut to just two points if Watford beat Blackpool, the (insert colour here) Birds will have two games in hand.

Midweek draws for Leicester and Brighton have created a six point gap between fourth and sixth places – which may not look like much, but we’ve only got ten games before the end of the season. A late Michael Keane goal prevented Leeds from winning all three points at the King Power Stadium while Brighton were held to a goalless draw at Ashton Gate. Despite earning a point, Bristol City remain bottom but there’s only a six point gap between the bottom six teams. As I said last week, we’re going down to the wire – with the bottom three clubs in the top ten in the form table, anything could still happen.

There are two games to look out for on Saturday. Peterborough v Ipswich is an interesting one as it’ll only be the third meeting in the league between them and Posh have won both – including the remarkable 7-1 demolition job in August 2011 which featured five goals in 20 minutes and two red cards for the Tractor Boys either side of half time.

After two away wins in three games in December, Ipswich have been awful away from home. They’ve not scored on their travels since the end of January and although they picked up a point at Huddersfield a couple of weeks ago, it’s their home form that’s keeping them out of immediate danger of the drop.

Peterborough have only lost two of their last eight games at London Road and still have a game in hand over Wolves and Bristol City, but they have an extremely tough run in and are currently second favourites for relegation. As we’ve come to expect over the past couple of seasons, scoring isn’t an issue for Darren Ferguson’s team but in all five of their last home games they’ve had to come from behind at some point.

If Ipswich are being kept afloat by a combination of a decent home record and a poor away won, the same type of thing is in danger of scuppering Leicester’s automatic promotion plans. The Foxes have lost one home game in 2013 but have failed to win on the road since mid January and are currently only four points clear of seventh placed Nottingham Forest. Their opponents on Saturday – Sheffield Wednesday – are dangerously close to the battle to avoid relegation, but Tuesday night’s defeat at Watford was the first time the Owls had lost an away game since the beginning of December. Wednesday won at Hull in January, but have been beaten by the other four sides in the top six.

There’s a rare appearance by Championship teams on Monday Night Football at the beginning of next week, so the next scheduled post will be on Monday. You never know what might happen at the Etihad though…