Neil Harris continues to inspire Millwall after his celebrated return, Borja Sainz is proving himself an ample farewell gift at Norwich City and Southampton's top two hopes are suddenly appearing shaky. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship...
TEAM OF THE ROUND
To say I'm sceptical of the term 'new manager bounce' would be an understatement. Like many things we disagree with in life, it's normally just semantics and my problem is with the terminology rather than the ideology. Anyway, regardless of my pedantic descriptive preferences I think we can all agree that Neil Harris is having a massive impact at Millwall and, if ever there were a case to credit someone with a 'new manager bounce' then this is it.
Or is it? Because Harris isn't really a new manager at Millwall is he! He's a club icon goalscorer and managed Millwall to promotion from League 1 just a handful of seasons ago. What Harris has brilliantly done is come into a club that he knows the in-built character and philosophy of better than anyone and leaned all the way into those characteristics. Millwall have always embraced their role as the perceived undervalued underdog in every scenario, what they've lacked in technical sophistication they've more than matched in physicality and passion. Those values have been perfectly aligned with the watching fans on the terraces.
Harris's Millwall won their third game in four under their new/old manager against Birmingham this weekend. They played an old fashioned 4-4-2 formation, they gave up only one shot on target and their winning goal was from a set piece in the 90th minute from Japhet Tanganga. There's plenty of race left to run still at the bottom of the Championship but this quick ten point shot in the arm for Millwall seems to me to be more in line with a club getting back to its roots rather than any mythical bounce!
PLAYER OF THE ROUND
There are several different strands to my choice of Borja Sainz as the player of the round for this past weekend. The most relevant piece of information is the fact that he scored a brilliant goal in Norwich's 5-0 win over Rotherham and though some of you may say 'He was playing at home against the side bottom of the league', the quality of the goal was outstanding.
Sainz killed a driven pass from Jacob Sorenson and turned towards goal in the same movement, he then manipulated the bouncing ball into a central area about 25 yards from goal. His shot was right in the sweet spot between hammering it at the goal as hard as you can and curling it with placement into the corner and putting Norwich 3-0 up.
If that wasn't enough to obtain top billing this week there was a certain karmic nature to the story after Sainz had seemingly been the victim of a bit of a dodgy red card in Norwich's midweek defeat up at Middlesbrough. Fortunately for Norwich the EFL agreed and the Spaniard's red card was rightfully rescinded, thus allowing him to take his starring role on Saturday.
I'm not familiar enough with the inner workings of the Carrow Road recruitment strategy to say for certain but it feels like Borja Sainz could be the last great signing from sporting director Stuart Webber, for whom the summer transfer window in which Sainz joined was his last. Webber's reign will forever be remembered for the masterful window that brought in Pukki and Buendia and, with those two stars and their finder all departed, Sainz is having a pretty good bash at filling the big shoes.
TALKING POINT OF THE ROUND
Is the top four reforming itself?
Second guessing the ebbs and flows of the Championship table is hard work, but someone's gotta do it. I wonder if we'll look back at round 37 when the season is over as the weekend where the top four re-ordered itself for the last time. If you're late to the party we've known with a decent amount of certainty that the top four will comprise Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton, with the quartet ten points ahead of the chasing pack. This round the only possible switch in position was that Leeds could overtake Ipswich and move into second spot and that is exactly how the weekend unfolded.
It was an 11th win in 12 games for Daniel Farke's side as Leeds went to Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night and efficiently took all three points with a 2-0 win. Ipswich looked like they were going to respond with a win of their own as they went into stoppage time 1-0 up at Cardiff, before a dramatic comeback from the Bluebirds saw the game settled 2-1 in their favour with goals in the 95th and 100th minute. At the head of the pack Leicester were held 2-2 by Hull, meaning the Foxes stayed three points clear at the top despite dropping points for the fourth time in the past five games. Finally, in fourth place, goal-happy Southampton kept themselves in touch with a 4-2 win over Sunderland.
I'm sure there will be more twists and turns but there's something about the way Leeds have been since 2023 turned into 2024 that suggests they have more momentum than anyone going into the final nine games. Leicester are laden with stars and have coasted through most of the season but with them playing in the FA Cup this coming weekend a win for Leeds on Sunday would mean they could be surrendering first place.
Ipswich have been magnificent in challenging the three relegated year one parachute teams, if they have one more nine game charge in them then maybe the impossible dream could be achieved but they must bounce back strongly from a harrowing loss in Wales. And Southampton have it all to do, with a six point gap to make up on the top two, fixture congestion ahead and away games to play against all the rest of the top four. If this past weekend in isolation is the barometer we could have a big hint as to who will end up our top two and who goes into the play-offs.
LOANEE OF THE ROUND
Luke McNally (Stoke City on loan from Burnley)
Luke McNally has been discussed in this column a fair few times since he made the step up to the Championship last season signing for Burnley.
It's been a well trodden path for Oxford defenders joining the second tier with Rob Dickie and Rob Atkinson both recently taking the journey. McNally wasn't a significant part of Burney's 101 point title procession, but he nearly made it to the Premier League under his own steam after joining Coventry and making it to Wembley before losing in the play-off final to Luton.
The good news for Championship watchers is that McNally is back once again, the bad news for Luke McNally is he's on loan at Stoke and not fighting to get promotion to the Premier League but to avoid relegation to League 1.
McNally came up trumps for Stoke in a big away win at Stoke at the weekend. Even he'll admit it wasn't his most aesthetically pleasing goal but it was an absolutely imperative 87th minute winner that just sort of hit him and rolled into the corner. Stoke had found themselves at the bottom of a giant collection of teams battling for survival in one of the most congested relegation dog fights we've seen in years in the Championship.
There are nine teams separated by just five points from Sheffield Wednesday in 23rd upwards and sensationally five of those teams have two or more wins in their past five games. McNally's late winner now adds Stoke to that number and the man who's more used to fighting at the top end will likely be a key figure in what looks like it'll be an unrelenting and brutal end to the season at the bottom.
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