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It is our sad duty to inform you that The Football Blog will cease publication as of today. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, it will no longer be possible to regularly publish and edit the same high-quality and in-depth content that our readers have become accustomed to.

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Editor

Bruce Halling has been monitoring Birmingham City’s slow and steady progress and comments on other issues arising from the latest Football League weekend.

It is incredible how quickly a team can be forgotten in football. Early in 2011, Birmingham City were a team that a lot of people were talking about. The Blues possessed one of the best home records in the Premier League, they were Carling Cup winners, and seemingly on an upwards trend.

A poor end to the 2010/11 season, however, saw the team relegated, and this was followed by a summer of upheaval as a number of big players left and weren’t really adequately replaced. Alex McLeish left the club to join rivals Aston Villa, and question marks over the club’s financial stability as owner Carson Yeung was arrested on money-laundering charges. Needless to say, Birmingham had a stuttering start to the season and completely fell off the radar.

In some ways, however, this seems to have helped them, as Chris Hughton is really turning around the fortunes of the St. Andrews’ club and yet, bizarrely, nobody really seems to have noticed yet. Following a 0-0 draw against Brighton on Saturday, Birmingham are now unbeaten in eight games in all competitions and have climbed the table almost unnoticed, with two games in hand on most of the teams above them. It surely will not be too long before the early title contenders, Southampton and West Ham, will have to stand up and take notice.

Elsewhere in the Championship, Millwall are beginning to generate a little bit of momentum also. After a torrid run in which they had gone winless in almost two months, they’ve now not been beaten in four games and have been particularly impressive in their last two outings, recording convincing victories over Leicester City, a result which led to Sven-Goran Eriksson’s dismissal as Foxes manager, and Ipswich Town.

Kenny Jackett’s side do have some tricky away games coming up but their next three home games are against the three teams currently in the relegation zone, so the Lions will surely fancy their chances of getting on a roll at home and getting some decent points on the board.

For the real action of the weekend, however, we must turn away from the Championship and turn our attentions to League One, which produced a sensational afternoon of football. A third of the teams in the division found the net three or more times as an incredible 48 goals were scored in the twelve games played on Saturday afternoon, in which the highlight was undoubtedly the 4-4 draw between Sheffield United and Exeter City at Bramall Lane.

It was a game which Danny Wilson’s side really ought to have won on paper, but if it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times, football games aren’t played on paper and the match was a brilliant advert for the Football League.

The thrills and spills were certainly not limited to the one game, however, as the games at Glanford Park, Brunton Park and the Weston Homes Community Stadium all produced six goals apiece.

Bobby Grant netted twice for Scunthorpe, who found themselves twice battling from a goal down against Tranmere before eventually running out 4-2 winners, while Carlisle fought back from a 0-3 deficit to earn a point against Oldham, inspired by a magnificent individual performance from Francois Zoko.

The tie between Colchester and Notts County, however, was perhaps the most remarkable of all, as it went from being goalless at the break to a six-goal thriller by the time the final whistle blew, with Colchester blowing County away with a devastating eight minute spell midway through the second half in which Michail Antonio, Ian Henderson and Kayode Odejayi all found the back of the net.

League One also saw one of the most bizarre moments of the season so far in the game between Walsall and MK Dons. It had been an even game until an incident, just after the half-hour mark, in which Saddlers’ keeper Jimmy Walker stormed off his line to sweep up a loose ball, lost his bearings, quite clearly picked the ball up outside the box and despite protesting his innocence, was dismissed.

From this moment on, Walsall were up against it, partially through being a man down but also partially owing to having no substitute keeper on the bench, something which has become a worryingly common practice this season since the number of substitutes permitted in Football League games was reduced back down to five from seven.

Moving on now to League Two, and the first signs are perhaps beginning to emerge that the race for the title in this division could be fought out between just two teams. Crawley Town, who started the weekend top of the table, slipped up and were held to a draw by Accrington Stanley, allowing Southend United, who recorded a 2-0 win at Macclesfield, to go back to the top of the table.

The two sides have now pulled a six-point gap over the chasing pack, and with the form that both sides have shown this season, could be beginning to establish their places at the top of the table. I said in last week’s blog that both sides look like they have all the attributes necessary to challenge for promotion and I stand by that view.

With that said, Crawley do look the more vulnerable team when they don’t have their strongest eleven available to them, so that could be something to watch out for as the inevitable strain of a 46-game season takes effect.

On a final note for this week, I’d like to make a special mention for the teams that competed in the Carling Cup last week. Aldershot performed valiantly but I think it was inevitable that the class in Manchester United’s side would show through, and that was evident with the quality of the goals that they scored.

I still think, despite the defeat, that the experience of the game will help drive the players of that club on to want to move the club forward onto another level and that can only be a good thing for Dean Holdsworth’s team.

Elsewhere, Cardiff produced a battling performance to see off Burnley to book their spot in the quarter finals, where they will host Premiership strugglers Blackburn Rovers, but for me the performance of the round came from Crystal Palace who did a phenomenal job in making Southampton look very, very average.

They face a trip to Old Trafford in the quarter-finals and that will not be an easy game for Dougie Freedman’s side but they have nothing to lose now, and I would back them to be a bit of a nuisance and cause United a couple of headaches in that game.

Follow Bruce on Twitter @brucehalling!

So, another former England manager bites the dust with Sven-Goran Eriksson leaving big spending Leicester City after an inconsistent start to the season.

Unrivalled promotion favourites, City currently sit 13th in the nPower Championship after a disappointing season which so far has seen them win only five of their opening 18 games, writes Dan Whitelegg.

The Foxes spent big in the summer with wealthy Thai owners King Power demanding Premier league football be brought to the stadium that bears the group’s name. A host of names were brought in with the likes of David Nugent, Kasper Schmeichel, Paul Konchesky and Matt Mills arriving, making them clear favourites with the bookies to retain their place in England’s top flight after a 10-year absence.

However, as many Championship rivals may have hoped, perhaps too many signings were made and Leicester are so far struggling to match up to the pre-season expectations.

As a result Sven has agreed to leave the club via mutual consent and admits he is saddened he won’t be leading the club into the Barclays Premier League. Many on the other hand, will possibly be pleased to see that money can’t buy you everything in football as more and more foreign owners think that a large wallet is all that is needed to bring success.

The big question now is who is going to take on the big spenders with Martin O’Neill already being cited as the preferred and undoubtedly most qualified man for the job.

O’Neill is regarded as one of the most successful Leicester bosses in recent history after leading the club to two League Cups and impressive Premier League finishes in his five-year spell at the club which ended in 2000 after moving to Celtic.

He has been out of football since leaving Aston Villa in August 2010 and is always one of the most sought after managers. He will be without doubt the fans’ number one choice.

However, other names have also been linked with the job with the always outspoken Billy Davies also being backed by the bookies, as well as the more seemingly unlikely names of Carlo Ancelotti and Slaven Bilic. Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t expect such names to drop down to a Championship club, but as Sven did before them, they may become attracted by the money, ambition and the chance to get back into English football.

The Leicester City job will be seen as a great opportunity by many managers with all the potential the club has to continue growing, and there is no question that with the squad that has already been assembled at the King Power stadium, a promotion could still very well be on the cards for the east Midlands club.

It seems like only a few short weeks ago that the Football League season was just kicking off, and yet here we are, almost one third of the way through the season already, writes Bruce Halling.

The one conclusion that I have been able to draw at this stage of the season is that I believe we are set for one of the best seasons in the Football League for a very long time, especially in the Championship.

At this stage of the season, while I have been hugely impressed with Southampton, in both the way they have adapted with ease to playing at a higher level and the way in which they have gone about their football this season, they are just one of over a dozen teams who could win promotion from this division this season.

To illustrate this point, all I have to do is talk about tonight’s game, which sees Brighton & Hove Albion face West Ham. After a great start to the season, Brighton currently find themselves in 12^th position in the Championship table, while West Ham currently occupy fourth place. Should Brighton win tonight, they will climb above their opponents. That is how close and competitive it is.

The most beautiful thing of all about this is that any team can seemingly beat any other team on any given day. Ipswich Town are one place above Peterborough United in the table at current, yet earlier in the season the Tractor Boys were demolished 7-1 by Darren Ferguson’s side, and at that stage it looked like Peterborough were definitely marching towards the top six, while Paul Jewell had a lot of things to figure out defensively.

Now, the only difference that particular result has made in the overall scheme of things is that Ipswich currently have the worst goal difference of any team in the top half of the table.

It is a similar story in League One at present, although there are a couple of teams that definitely stand out from the others, and it is no coincidence that they are the two teams currently occupying the automatic promotion places.

Charlton have made a fantastic start to the season and are playing some magnificent football. Bradley Wright-Phillips has finally come of age and is now looking like a striker that will be able to score goals at a higher level, but he is by no means the only player attraction attention in Chris Powell’s side. Powell has done a brilliant job turning around the fortunes of a club that looked in terminal decline prior to his arrival and I think it will be very difficult stopping them taking the title in that division this season.

If there’s one club definitely capable of finishing top of the pile though, it’s Huddersfield Town. Unbeaten in league football in 2011, in what has been an unbelievable streak for Lee Clark and his side; they look like the real deal.

The way in which they swept aside Preston North End, who are by no means easy opposition, only served as a warning to the rest of this division that they have only one target in mind this season, that being the League One title. If Jordan Rhodes continues in his current vein of form, having scored thirteen goals in his last five games for club and country, the Terriers will take some stopping.

Elsewhere in the division, there are a number of other teams who look like they could also challenge. Both Sheffield teams are up the right end of the table, early pacesetters MK Dons aren’t too far away although they have not looked as strong since the departure of Sam Baldock to West Ham, and there are a number of other teams who are not too far away either, including Preston and Hartlepool, who are both currently just outside the playoff places in the division, but both with a game in hand in which victory would put them back into the top six. The only complication? Their game in hand is against each other.

Moving on to League Two, there are again around ten to twelve teams that look like they could be in the running for promotion this season.

Crawley Town and Southend United are right at the top of the table and look like they have all the attributes of a team that will be fighting for the league title this season, despite a completely different approach in both cases. Crawley have been able to just throw money at the situation and comfortably outspend most, if not all other clubs in this division and are reaping the rewards from this at current.

Southend, on the other hand, have had to go through a period of transition and rebuilding after a difficult couple of years off the pitch, which they now appear to have put firmly behind them, and are now getting the benefits of the hard work that has been done off the pitch.

They are by no means the only contenders. Gillingham and Shrewsbury Town are hovering there or thereabouts and have been all season so far, Cheltenham look like a very tough-to-beat team this time around, and Morecambe have had an incredible start to the season so far under new boss Jim Bentley.

I wouldn’t rule out Wimbledon, Oxford or Swindon either. All have shown glimpses of brilliance at times but just need to find a little more consistency to take that final step from being on the fringes of the playoff places to being right in the mix. They’re not short of time to make that step either.

On a final note, I wish the five Football League clubs still competing in the Carling Cup the best of luck this week.

Aldershot head into their game with Manchester United on Tuesday in ideal fashion, having outclassed Dagenham & Redbridge 5-2 while seeing United dismantled by Manchester City. United may well be a little bit vulnerable in the early stages of Tuesday’s game, and if Dean Holdsworth can get his side fired up and in the faces of their more illustrious opponents, they genuinely could make a game of it.

Elsewhere, the remaining four will become two as there are two all-Championship clashes, with Cardiff hosting Burnley and Southampton travelling to Crystal Palace. Both games will be worth watching, but in particular the game at Selhurst Park, as both teams are high in both form and confidence. I wouldn’t like to pick a winner.

Follow Bruce on Twitter @brucehalling!

After nearly two weeks of speculation and a revolving door of high-profile names linked to the job, Steve Cotterill has finally been given the task of reviving the fortunes of Nottingham Forest.

Dan Whitelegg asks: with Cotterill perhaps being one of the lesser names on the list, is he the right man to take on one of the biggest clubs in English football which is seemingly in turmoil?

Forest, consecutive European champions in the 1980s under the leadership of the infamous Brian Clough, came into this Championship season with high expectations of promotion, with the apparently reinvigorated Steve ‘Wally with a Brolly’ McClaren hoping to rebuild his reputation in the English game after the national team debacle.

However, poor results on the pitch accompanied with unrest off it, led to the club hovering above the trap door and McLaren’s imminent departure as well as the chairman revealing he will also be stepping down at the end of the season.

The immediate concern though was to name a successor to McClaren, and surely a club held in such high esteem would be overwhelmed with high-quality applicants and impessive track records. Many were linked to the role including fan favourites Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane, as well as the likes of Alan Curbishley, Paul Ince, Darren Ferguson and also the unlikely return of Billy Davies.

All these names, admittedly some more suited to the job than others, are all big names in the English game, however Forest have opted for notable hard worker and Portsmouth boss Steve Cotterill.

Cotterill is no stranger to adversity and hardship, with his last two jobs hardly being the easiest. We all know the problems he faced at his last club Portsmouth, but despite all the financial turmoil, transfer embargos and the inability to name a full bench on match days, he still managed to steer them to mid table last season and had had a promising start to this one.

Preceding that was his tenure at now neighbouring Notts County, where after taking over amidst complications behind the scenes after seeing Sven Goran Eriksson leave the board as well as all the promised money from owners, he still led them to promotion to League One.

It is safe to say that Cotterill has been a mini success over recent seasons and perhaps deserves his chance at a club such as Forest. However, the one thing that he will have to overcome which perhaps weren’t present at his other clubs is expectation. A club as big Nottingham Forest demands success and ultimately this is what became Billy Davies’s downfall, who twice failed at the last hurdle to get them into the Premier League.

If Cotterill can cope with this added pressure he may have a chance at bringing pride back to the City Ground and if his first game is anything to go by, a 2-0 win at Middlesbrough, a good season could still lie ahead.

Bruce Halling reviews the weekend’s Football League action. The Steel City derby between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday certainly lived up to its top billing.

While there was a lot of attention on the supposed ‘greatest club game on Earth’ as Liverpool faced Manchester United in the Premier League, one of the greatest derbies in the history of English football was played out this weekend as the two teams of Sheffield clashed in the Steel City Derby.

Allow me to make the case for why I say this. Both teams have a long and storied history, and although both have enjoyed better days, Sunday’s clash at Bramall Lane saw a crowd of 28,136. That is a huge crowd for a game of football being played in the third tier of the English League system. To put it in perspective, it was a higher crowd than was seen at the weekend at Norwich, West Brom, Queens Park Rangers, Stoke or Wigan – all Premiership sides.

The atmosphere at these derby games is akin to that of a ferocious top-flight encounter, yet the two sides haven’t met in the top division since Wednesday saw off United 3-1 at Hillsborough in January 1994. On that day, Andy Sinton and Mark Bright were singled out as two of Wednesday’s best players heading into the game and both rose to the occasion and produced fantastic performances.

Fast forward 17 years, and heading into Sunday’s game, both sides had players that were dubbed as being more than capable of rising to the occasion, but in particular the contributions of United’s Ched Evans and Wednesday’s Gary Madine were seen as what could in the end be the difference between the two sides.

As fate would have it, both men found their way onto the scoresheet as the sides played out a thrilling 2-2 draw on a day where the result could have been very, very different. United raced into a two goal lead which, if I’m honest, they should have been able to protect, but Wednesday battled until the bitter end and snatched a point with two late goals. I think given the way the game went, Wednesday boss Gary Megson will be much more satisfied with the point than Danny Wilson but if you’d offered a point to both sides before the game they probably would have taken it.

They say in football that these are the kinds of games you have to win if you want to be challenging for promotion, which both Sheffield sides have ambitions of doing, but given the history, the passion and the intensity of such an important game for the people of Sheffield, it is also the kind of game that neither side ever wants to lose. I think that showed in the manner that Wednesday fought back when seemingly completely out of the game with just a few minutes to go. It is that drama and passion that makes the Steel City Derby one of football’s finest derbies, regardless of what level it is played at.

I’m going to move on from talking about derbies to Derby. They’ve really impressed me so far this season and I think they were terrific against Southampton at the weekend. In fact, both teams impressed me with the way they went about their football. You could have easily forgiven either side for being a bit nervous or subdued in the opening stages given the importance of the match, even this early in the season, but there was no sign of tension at all as both sides came out the blocks quickly and ended up putting on a terrific show for the fans as the game finished 1-1.

I like the way Nigel Clough has taken his time in slowly putting together the squad of players they have there. He hasn’t been rushed into spending money, he hasn’t been pressurised into panic-buying and although it has taken a few seasons for the work to pay off, the results are definitely beginning to show. The Derby board have shown today too that they back Clough fully by giving him and his backroom staff new three-year contracts to ensure the good work that’s being done now doesn’t begin to unravel with speculation over what will happen after this season.

Elsewhere, the news broke just before the weekend that Steve Cotterill has agreed to become Nottingham Forest’s new manager. He was in the stands as Forest dropped into the relegation zone after losing 1-0 to Coventry, and will want to make sure his side hit the ground running next week. Forest are not a team that should be finding themselves at the bottom of this division, but this is the situation they find themselves in at current, and it will be the toughest test of Cotterill’s managerial career so far to turn this situation around and get Forest heading in the right direction.

Cotterill leaves behind Portsmouth, who I think did very well to beat Barnsley 2-0. The Fratton Park job I think is perhaps a more attractive one than people give it credit for. There are a lot of good, experienced players there, and there are also some good young players coming through. The financial situation at the club has now stabilised, and the club are very much focused on looking forwards rather than back at what was a horrendous couple of years for everybody involved.

If I was running the show down there, I would approach Dave Jones. He’s out of work at the moment, and although things ultimatedly ended up turning sour at the end for him at Cardiff, there is no doubting his ability as a manager. He has vast experience, and he knows what it takes to make teams competitive, regardless of the finances they have available to them. I think Pompey would struggle to make a better appointment.

Bristol City are set to make an appointment this week too, with Derek McInnes the favourite to take the job there. I don’t generally like to draw comparisons, but St. Johnstone’s previous manager also came south of the border, and he definitely didn’t do too badly for himself. For those of you who are unsure who I’m referring to, it’s the man who now manages Bolton Wanderers, Owen Coyle.

To finish off, I will talk briefly about League Two which I’ve sadly neglected somewhat this week. Both sides in the bottom two, Plymouth and Hereford, picked up wins over the weekend which I think is massively important for both clubs. I think Plymouth are now beginning to turn a corner, now that there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel for the club. Hereford also will be ecstatic at being able to record a win over fellow strugglers Bradford.

It is starting to tighten up at the bottom end of the table, and teams like Dagenham & Redbridge, Aldershot and Accrington may need to start looking over their shoulder a little. They are all teams who haven’t had a great run of late, and are all teams that, if I’m being frank, are capable of being further up the table than they currently find themselves. The next few weeks will be very important for all involved in the bottom third of the League Two table, particularly Aldershot Town. They need a win more than most next weekend, as they look to get some momentum going ahead of the biggest game in the club’s history, as they are soon to face Manchester United in the Carling Cup fourth round.

I know just as much as the next person its hugely unlikely that we’ll see an upset, but as an advocate and a huge fan of the Football League, I would love to see Aldershot give United a run for their money.

Bruce Halling rounds-up last week’s Football League action, with the television cameras focussing on League One and Two as the Championship took the weekend off.

With the international break meaning there was no league action in the top two tiers over this weekend, it was left to the lower echelons of the Football League to take centre stage in front of the television cameras, which I think always makes for a refreshing change.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of money is exchanged so that Sky can show the likes of Rooney, Drogba and company on a weekly basis, but why not let the television audience be treated to a Shefki Kuqi swan-dive celebration or a Karl Hawley masterclass every now and again?

I think on the whole, Sky did a good job of picking games for television as well, although I did find myself questioning the decision to put Northampton Town vs Crawley Town as the Saturday lunchtime kick-off. There were certainly better games to pick from in League Two over the weekend.

Heading into the day’s games, probably Gillingham’s clash with Port Vale was amongst the most intriguing of the League Two programme, though that didn’t prove to be a great deal more entertaining than the game they did choose to show.

I’m sure in hindsight Sky wished they’d decided to take a trip down to Swindon to watch their 3-3 draw with Hereford.

What a fantastic game that was, and a dramatic finale too as Hereford snatched a late leveller to claim a crucial point.

On Sunday, they chose to show Notts County’s game against Hartlepool United which I certainly had no issue with. On paper, it looked set to be a fascinating encounter, with both sides in good form, and Hartlepool in particular having made a brilliant start to the season, much beyond anybody’s expectations.

As the game played out, County outclassed Hartlepool to record a convincing 3-0 win but I still think it was a magnificent advert for the Football League, as was Oldham’s surprise 2-1 win over MK Dons which was shown on Monday night.

The sad reality is, however, that by next weekend, the drama and the intrigue of Leagues One and Two, which are both setting up to be incredibly tight at both ends of the table this season, will be pretty much forgotten to the television audience by next Saturday.

The usual top flight encounters will once again seize control of the Sky cameras, leaving the Football League to be summed up in a late night highlights package on BBC One. Incidentally, I think Manish Bhasin does a magnificent job in presenting The Football League Show.

It’s always good to see Steve Claridge getting involved and having his say too, although I’d perhaps like to see the Beeb occasionally getting some more people on, just to liven it up a bit from time to time.

Moving on now, while there have been many talking points arising from the weekend’s games, the one story I would like to give a mention to is that Wales Under-21 defender Tom Bender is making a steady recovery from the horrible injury he sustained during last week’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match between Tranmere Rovers and Accrington Stanley.

Bender, who’s on loan at Accrington from Colchester United, took an almighty whack on his head whilst challenging for the ball in a freak accident and, like many, I was fearing the worst for the young lad.

Fortunately, he was extremely lucky to escape with what was described as a ‘severe concussion’ when the injury could have been a lot worse, and although it’ll probably be a few weeks yet before he’s back playing again, I’m thankful to the footballing gods that it looks like he’ll make a full recovery.

I must also say that I believe the referee on the night made the right decision in calling the game off. Given the circumstances at the time, I don’t really think there was any other option. There was genuine concern for Bender’s well-being, and I believe in these circumstances common sense has to prevail, and thankfully it did. Incidentally, the rescheduled game was won by Tranmere last night, courtesy of a solitary goal from Ash Taylor.

On the subject of common sense, I’m glad to see that neither Nottingham Forest nor Bristol City have rushed into naming a new manager, despite my own previous comments that a swift appointment may be in order.

In the situations that these clubs find themselves in, the right appointment has definitely got to be made because these are two clubs that are both underachieving to varying extents and need to make the right decisions now because it could prove very costly in the medium or long term.

Take the example of Sheffield United last season, who appointed Micky Adams as their manager after Gary Speed left to take up the post as Wales boss. It was an appointment which surprised quite a few people, and Adams never really found his feet at Bramall Lane and the end result was that Sheffield United found themselves being relegated to the third tier with a squad that should have secured a top-half finish.

Nottingham Forest have announced a three-man shortlist that includes Steve Cotterill, Mark Robins and Kevin MacDonald, which seems to suggest they are close to making an appointment, whilst Bristol City remain more tight-lipped and say they won’t rush into bringing someone in.

So far, Gianfranco Zola, David James and caretaker manager Steve Wigley are amongst those who have been ruled out of the running. I suspect it may be another two weeks or so before City make a final decision. They’re not in a great position right now, being bottom of the Championship, and know that their status in this division could well depend on getting this decision right.

On a final note, I would urge people to tune in to Doncaster’s game with Leeds United on Friday night. On paper, it seems like Leeds should be favourites for this one, but, to use a cliché, football games aren’t played on paper.

Donny have looked an entirely new team under new manager Dean Saunders, and now he’s had another couple of weeks on the training ground with his side, I genuinely believe they could start to make a bit of an impression in this division.

Either way, I reckon it could be a fantastic game, and what better way to get the weekend underway with some good ol’ Football League action?

Follow Bruce on Twitter @brucehalling!

Please accept our apologies for the delay in publishing this review. This was due to circumstances beyond our control. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We’re giving our support to a great new initiative set-up by the Football League. The Family Football Festival is designed to encourage more families to attend matches.

Running over the course of October, November and up until early December, the Family Football Festival will be taking in over 40 npower Football League games, providing tailored family entertainment to enhance the matchday experience.

The organisers promise that ‘every event is unique’ with ‘clubs are laying on loads of family fun activities for all ages including face painting, mascot racing, penalty shoot-outs, ‘meet the teams’ and live music.’

As mentioned, the Football League aims to attract new families to games so that they can enjoy the family-friendly experience, quality to-gether time and all in the safe environment that football provides.

Siobhan Freeguard, Founder of Netmums and Family Football Festival ambassador, comments: “Netmums are delighted to be involved with The Family Football Festival – it’s an exciting opportunity for families across the country to enjoy a fun day out together at their local League club. It’s a great chance for mums to get the family together and enjoy the atmosphere of a League match first hand this autumn.”

David Malkinson, Head of Marketing at The Football League, feels that football should be enjoyed by everyone, “Football is a sport that appeals to the whole family and League clubs have experienced bumper family attendances in recent seasons. League football is extremely accessible, offers good value for money and provides a place where families can enjoy each other’s company as well as the action on the pitch. I encourage families to go along to their local game and enjoy some football together-time.”

Check out the Family Football Festival fixtures taking place this weekend and see below to find out when your local club are getting in on the action:

Saturday 8 October (All games kick-off at 3.00pm)

Colchester United v Yeovil Town

Wycombe Wanderers v Walsall

Cheltenham Town v Dagenham and Redbridge

Shrewsbury Town v Barnet

Rotherham United v Burton Albion

To find your local fixture, win prizes and invite your friends to a game, visit www.facebook.com/familyfootball

The standout fixture heading into last weekend’s round of fixtures, for me, was Sunday’s Championship clash between Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City, which was a huge match for both sides.

Both teams were expected to be amongst the challengers for promotion this season but both have been flirting with the wrong end of the table at the start of this season, writes Bruce Halling.

There was a definite feeling, particularly given the 5-1 thrashing they took at the hands of Burnley during midweek, that anything less than a win would probably spell the end of Steve McClaren’s tenure at the City Ground.

And so it proved. Once again, Forest looked a far cry from the side which has come so close to achieving promotion in the past two seasons and after the game, McClaren came to the decision to step down from the role, bringing to an end a troubled spell at the club for the former England boss.

In his 112 days in the job, he endured ‘the worst pre-season of his career’ as he struggled to put his own stamp on the team and was heavily critical of the board for not backing him to bring in the players he felt he needed. With performances on the pitch poor and results just not coming, it was only a matter of time before something had to give.

Where does McClaren now go from here? He built up his reputation as a club manager in England, but with this catastrophic spell his stock will no doubt have fallen dramatically.

The former Middlesbrough, FC Twente and Wolfsburg boss does still have a reasonably good reputation on the continent, however, so he may have to look abroad once again to try and rebuild his reputation.

Another manager finding himself out of work is Keith Millen, who has today been relieved of his position at Bristol City. Though expectations at Ashton Gate are definitely not on a par compared with those at Forest, Robins fans have still nevertheless been disappointed with the start that the club have made to the season, sitting bottom of the Championship table with just six points from ten games.

For a few weeks now, Millen has bemoaned his side’s luck, as they have been edged out of a number of recent fixtures from positions where things may have gone differently on another day, but clearly the manner of the team’s last two defeats has prompted chairman Colin Sexstone into making the decision to dismiss Millen.

In midweek, they relinquished a two-goal lead in the last twenty minutes to find themselves beaten 3-2 by Reading, and followed that up with a woeful performance away at Blackpool in which they were thrashed 5-0, but it could easily have been worse.

The forthcoming international break now represents an opportunity for a new manager to come in and have a week or so to work with the squad before their next competitive game.

I’m not one to speculate too heavily on managerial appointments, but with two jobs becoming available in the Championship in the space of 24 hours, there could be a little bit of a manager merry-go-round if Forest and Bristol City look to other clubs to appoint their new managers.

One man who I can certainly see getting back in a job now an opportunity has presented itself, is Dave Jones. He’s a good manager and I was surprised he didn’t land another job over the summer after he left Cardiff City, but I suspect he’ll end up picking up one of these two jobs. He’s too good a manager to be out of work for too long.

Looking further down the divisions, the story of the week in League One was that of the form book being completely torn up, as all four teams who started the day in the relegation zone picked up victories in what was an intriguing afternoon of football. The biggest surprise for me was Leyton Orient beating Preston 2-1 to record their first win of the season.

Last week, I said looking at the way results have gone for Russell Slade’s men and the games they have coming up, I couldn’t see where a win was going to come from for them and since then they’ve taken four points out of six, so you have to give them credit for staying mentally strong and battling to get that first win on the board.

It is still going to be a long and difficult season for them, but now they’ve finally got that first win, they could get on a little roll and it will be important for them to start putting results together because a run of five or six games unbeaten at this stage of the season could prove to be vitally important by the time the end of the season comes around.

I do also have to give credit to Charlton Athletic, who now move five points clear in the division after beating Sheffield United 2-0. Chris Powell has done a tremendous job in turning around the fortunes of the club, who have fallen a long way in a short space of time but it looks like brighter times lay ahead once again for the Addicks. On current form, I can’t see anyone else but them winning League One.

And looking at League Two, I’m obviously delighted at Southend United going top of the table, but the thing that stands out for me looking at the table at current is the positions of the two newly-promoted sides.

Crawley Town, who were dubbed as a lot of people’s favourites for promotion, owing to the comparatively huge level of investment that the club have made in recruiting players with obvious talent and quality at this level, now sit in second place in the table having recovered from what was an alarming dip in form a few weeks ago, while AFC Wimbledon move up into fourth place and at current, I don’t think you can write them off.

To sign off for this week, I do just want to talk a little more about League Two, because it is a fantastic division and does definitely deserve more than just a passing mention.

The great thing about the division is that it is incredibly tight once again this season, which I will talk about more in future blogs, with any one of maybe a dozen teams capable of being promoted, and with almost any team capable of beating any other on any given day.

Consistency will be the key for success this season, the teams who are able to put a run of results together on a weekly basis ultimately are the ones who will end up winning promotion come the end of the season.

You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucehalling!

This weekend’s Football League action saw the typical combination of big winners, bad losers, as well as the good, the bad and the downright ugly, writes Bruce Halling.

For me, the big theme coming through from this weekend’s games is one of certain teams making changes and turning the corner, so it is this that I’m going to focus on with this week’s blog, with two particular teams in mind – Doncaster Rovers and Plymouth Argyle.

First, to the Championship’s bottom club, who have endured a very bizarre twist of events. Sean O’Driscoll had been publically backed by the club, and by chairman John Ryan, only to be removed hours later and replaced with Dean Saunders, who joins the club from Blue Square Bet Premier high-fliers Wrexham.

Ultimately, I think a change of manager was the right thing to do, the club hadn’t won a game in half a year and they needed a change. It’s a shame, because O’Driscoll had, up until the last few months, had a pretty good time at Doncaster, and they’d promised to start this season brightly, only to lose Billy Sharp to injury and appear to not have a clue what they were doing without him.

Saunders has come in, had very little time to prepare the side for a tough game over a Crystal Palace team which haven’t been doing too badly this season, and yet he’s guided Donny to their first league win of the season. Billy Sharp also returned from injury as a second-half substitute too.

There’s a lot of work to be done at the Keepmoat Stadium, but the signs are there that things might just start getting better now. Keeping Billy Sharp at the club, and fit, will play a crucial part in how well Doncaster fare for the remainder of the season.

Next, to Home Park, where Plymouth fans have been having to endure a torrid time of it. The financial situation at the club has led to a rotten eighteen months for Pilgrims fans, who have seen their club go into administration and subsequently be relegated from League One. The new season has seen Argyle continue to struggle as a takeover has still yet to be completed while the club props up the League Two table.

In the last week or so, prospective buyer James Brent has spoke of his hope to complete a takeover by mid-October, while current chairman Peter Ridsdale has announced he plans to step down from his involvement with the club once a takeover has been completed.

Meanwhile, on the pitch, Peter Reid was dismissed from the job as manager in a move I think was a bit rash, given the circumstances. It is a very difficult job to ask anybody to do, to put a squad together in a competitive division with no money, and then be able to compete.

Team captain Carl Fletcher has taken the job on a temporary basis, and was on the touchline (owing to being suspended following a red card against Southend United) as Plymouth recorded their first win of the season, beating Macclesfield 2-0, in a game which also saw the Pilgrims keep their first clean sheet of the season.

For the first time in quite a while, Argyle fans went home on Saturday with a sense of optimism that things might actually begin to get better for their club over the coming weeks, though there are still a lot of things that need to happen in order for any sustainable improvement to take place – Brent’s takeover being the most critical of all.

For some teams, there is a desperate wait for the club to do something to turn the corner, and the one club that stands out for me at the moment as a club in dire need of something to happen for them is Leyton Orient, currently at the foot of the League One table.

This is a club that last season really looked like they were going places. Despite an unimpressive start, Orient strung an incredible sequence of results together through the middle of the season, most notably of course taking Arsenal to a replay in the FA Cup, and in the end only narrowly missed out on a playoff place.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, everything appears to have gone completely wrong this season for Russell Slade’s team, and they currently find themselves in a position where they have only recorded three points from their opening ten games, and have lost five games out of five in front of their own fans.

They did manage to progress to the Third Round of the Carling Cup, and were unfortunate to be beaten in a marathon of a penalty shootout against Dagenham & Redbridge in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, but ultimately, the start to the season that they have made hasn’t been good enough and something clearly needs to happen for things to change.

Slade is a popular manager amongst the Orient faithful, but I can imagine that their patience is being tried now, in what has been a rotten start to the season. If they can’t win one of their next four games, they’re going to look a side in terrible trouble, but with those games being a home fixture against Preston, followed by a trip to Scunthorpe and home clashes with Bury and Sheffield United, it’s difficult to see just where a win is going to come from. In that situation, a change needs to be made.

I’m going to round off this week’s blog on a brighter note by congratulating a couple of teams who got stunning results at the weekend. Derby County’s 3-0 win over Millwall to me shows what great progress Nigel Clough is beginning to make at Pride Park, and they now sit third place in the Championship table.

There’s still plenty of time for that to change of course, but who would have guessed a top five of Southampton, Middlesbrough, Derby, West Ham and Brighton after 8 games?  Also, an honorary, if somewhat biased, mention to my beloved Southend United, who I think got the result of the weekend, winning 4-0 at Rotherham to move into the League Two automatic promotion places.

Paul Sturrock’s doing a great job with the Roots Hall club, and I think they’re one of around eight to ten sides which have a shot at getting promoted from that division this season. Winning games against the teams around you is what will give you an edge, and to have done so in such emphatic fashion, away from home too, will give Sturrock and his side great confidence heading into the next run of games.

You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucehalling!