Sheffield United pulled off a rare nine point week. Ched Evans again produced for Preston. And Carlos Corberan offered West Brom fans some genuine hope. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship...
TEAM OF THE WEEK
One of the main reasons that the Championship slaloms around quite so excitedly is 'three game weeks'. The managerial class tend to refer to it as 'Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday' but the idea that a swing of nine points can be made between any two teams in such a short period is very significant. A simplistic bit of maths tells us at the moment that leaders Burnley are set to score under ninety points for the season based on their current points per game, thus meaning nine points is over ten percent of our projected total for the potential Champions.
Most teams will go the entire season without ever recording the three weekly wins required for the super fast nine point splurge, while some lucky sets of fans will see their side do it more than once. Sheffield United have just pulled off the perfect week points wise and given a poor run had seen them score three points in six games prior to this past week, they'll be very happy to bank a quick nine.
The Blades were on the road for the first two games of their week, ruining Carlos Corberan's debut as West Brom boss with a two-nil win and then slipping past Bristol City at Ashton Gate. As the winter months kick in, these types of clean sheet away wins are invaluable in churning out the points consistently. The weekend saw a slightly more spectacular victory as a barnstorming second half saw the Blades beat leaders Burnley 5-2 at Bramall Lane. United are back at it at home to Rotherham this midweek, giving them a chance to overlap two consecutive nine point weeks into a fifteen point fortnight and possibly sending them into the World Cup break in the best kind of form.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Ched Evans (Preston North End)
All this talk of nine point weeks also applies to Preston North End this week and their win at Reading on Friday night meant a nice quiet Saturday with their mission well and truly accomplished. Preston's Friday night fun was delivered via a big contribution from striker Ched Evans, who scored his first two goals for the season in a two-one win at the SCL. I'd go as far as to say that for a pair of goals diverse in look but high on quality, you'll do well to see too many better doubles.
For his first, Evans dusted himself down from a hefty challenge as Robbie Brady's corner was cleared back out to the taker. Brady put an in-swinging cross back into the box and Evans glanced a perfectly angled headed into the far corner for the games opening goal. A Lucas Joao penalty brought the scores level, but with just over ten minutes to go Evans struck again. The striker approached the box from the right, defender Tom Mcintyre offered him inside onto his left foot and with Royals keeper Joe Lumley not wanting to leave his near post unguarded, the far post was open. Evans hit a beautiful right footed shot, with exactly the right amount of disguise, power and spin to bulge the side netting and win the game for Preston.
Evans' career tends to get conflated down to one particular event that I don't feel particularly motivated to discuss here and now. Performances like Friday night give a 'what might have been' narrative, as a now 33 year old Evans plays out his later years up at Preston.
TALKING POINT
First Impressions
The sheer amount of turnover in jobs means we're never too far removed from a Championship manager making their first impressions in a new post. We've got three contenders this week in Middlesbrough's Michael Carrick, West Brom's Carlos Corberan and Hull's Liam Rosenior. I'm going to do the decent thing and give Rosenior a pass, he was pictured with the Hull ownership on Tuesday night but my basic knowledge of football logistics suggests he'll have only overseen one recovery day, one training and one travel day prior to his first Tigers game.
Corberan and Carrick have done a complete three game week and we can potentially make some early judgements on their work so far. Starting with Carrick the results are completely down the middle, his three games have given us a defeat at Preston, a win at Hull and a draw at home to Bristol City. Perhaps Boro were a little unlucky to lose late at Preston, perhaps they were a little lucky to win via two own goals at Hull. One thing we do know is that striker Chuba Akpom is having a lovely time and scored in each of the three games.
If it's a watching brief regarding Carrick, I think we can certainly give Corberan a tick in the box so far. West Brom have, by most estimations of their squad, totally underachieved this season, so the six points accumulated this week represents a big upturn in fortunes. Yes, Corberan started with defeat at home to Sheffield United, but two wins and clean sheets at home to Blackpool and then away at QPR was impressive stuff. Despite that massive spike in points West Brom remain in the bottom three, showing there is much to do for Corberan despite such early positivity.
LOANEE OF THE WEEK
Nathan Baxter (Hull City on loan from Chelsea)
It's that typical 'finding your level' journey for Hull keeper Nathan Baxter as he negotiates the pros and cons of being a young keeper at an elite club like Chelsea. On the one hand opportunities tend to be plenty, on the other hand those opportunities don't tend to be at the parent club. Baxter has been here, there and everywhere on loan from Chelsea over his career and has already played in non-league, Scotland as well as all three EFL divisions. At 23 years old he now seems to be finding his level in the Championship in his second season on loan at Hull City.
Baxter actually started the season playing second fiddle to Matt Ingram in the Hull goalkeeping hierarchy, but has now started ten games and new boss Liam Rosenior will be very directly grateful to him for Saturday's point at Millwall. Baxter and the Hull defence put in a 'backs to the wall' performance to leave with a goalless draw after the red card to Oscar Estupinan in the first half at The Den. Hull faced 24 shots from Millwall but stood firm with Baxter pulling off an impressive six saves.
You wonder if the likes of Graham Potter managing at giant clubs like Chelsea even have their young loanee goalkeepers on their radar. Obviously you want young players to be looked after but, given the amount of pressure to win literally every week, you wouldn't blame the manager for having his attention away from Millwall 0-0 Hull when preparing for a home game with Arsenal this past weekend. All of this increases the likelihood that whether at Hull or not, we'll be seeing Nathan Baxter in goal in the Championship beyond this season.
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