Championship review: Ipswich's Sarmiento shines, Sunderland panic
Team of the round
Behind the red hot speed machine that is Southampton, the next fastest mover in the current Championship promotion race is Coventry City. The Sky Blues have lost just one game in their last 13 and put more points on the board over that period than everyone in the division other than the high flying Saints. Coventry's battle though isn't with Southampton, or indeed those pushing for automatic promotion, right now it's all about nailing down a play-off spot and they're giving that a pretty good go.
The latest win for Coventry came at the weekend at Sheffield Wednesday, with the slightly unpredictable two goal hero holding midfielder Ben Sheaf. What is more predictable is City's form and this was both a third Championship win in a row and a fifth win in six.
If only they'd started like this then we'd have an even crazier automatic promotion race, however Mark Robins surely gets a pass for that poor start after his two best players from last season were sold and a new team was built during the summer transfer window.
The team that started at Hillsborough had a nice mix of old and new, but the right hand side, goalkeeper, both centre backs, and two of the three subs all arrived during the close season rebuild. There's a sense from the power of the three relegated teams that this may be a disproportionately hard season to get promoted during, but Coventry are clicking at the right time and look set to become a part of that conversation.
Player of the round
QPR's second goal this weekend was notable for a couple of reasons, it was scored by Sinclair Armstrong and had an xG of 0.96. If you're one of those football fans whose head threatens to explode at the mere mention of probability data pertaining to someone kicking a ball into a net then look away now, but to be clear 0.96 represents a 96% chance of a goal from the position on the pitch Armstrong scored.
In other words this was just about as easy a close range tap in as you could wish to see. The identity of the goalscorer is also notable because after Armstrong missed a free header and two one on one chances during last week's home defeat against Watford, in other words he really needed a goal. The young striker is full of energy, endeavour and physicality but, prior to the weekend, his nuisance value had only produced a single goal so far this season.
After scoring his ultra close range tap in, Armstrong celebrated like a gigantic weight had been lifted from his shoulders. This was a feeling mirrored by QPR's supporters and their manager, as this goal came in the 85th minute and as good as guaranteed three points and a vital 2-0 home win over Millwall.
Such is the slow pace down at the bottom of the table that, despite losing six of their last seven games in all competitions, this victory put QPR just three points behind nearest relegation rivals Huddersfield. On Sunday, thank-you fixture computer, it's QPR vs Huddersfield and a win takes Rangers out of the bottom three. Sinclair Armstrong will be hoping for a similar scenario as this past weekend.
Talking point
Sunderland's unpopular strategy
It seems as though the Wayne Rooney debacle at Birmingham this season has unsettled more than just the fans at St Andrews. Rooney's 'blink and you'll miss it' run managing Blues now serves as a cautionary tale for owners trying to get their club up the Championship table and, even though they wouldn't admit it publicly, the Birmingham top brass know how badly wrong they got it.
More than anything it was the timing of Rooney replacing John Eustace that was the most crazy aspect, not only had Birmingham been taken over just a few months prior, but the squad had been completely regenerated. Even down to the fact Eustace won his last couple of games in charge and Rooney started with a tricky run of fixtures, this was the wrong person at the wrong time.
Rooney has been replaced now with Tony Mowbray, a likeable and experienced safe pair of hands. The irony here is that the reason Mowbray was even available in the first instance is leading another set of fans to think their club has made the same mistake as Birmingham did. We're talking of course about Sunderland, where Mowbray's popularity has been underscored by the sheer indifference of their fanbase towards new boss Mick Beale.
The past two games have both brought defeats for Sunderland and the fans have been voicing their disapproval online and in the stadium. I think perhaps Beale is a more credible manager than Rooney, but the situation does feel like it's taking a slightly too similar path to what went on at Birmingham through the winter.
Loanee of the round
Jeremy Sarmiento (Ipswich Town on loan from Brighton)
We had to wait until the end of the weekend for perhaps the biggest match of the round in the Championship as first placed Leicester took on third placed Ipswich at the King Power in the televised Monday night game. We also had to wait right until the end of that game for our loanee of the round to reveal himself as Jeremy Sarmiento grabbed a vital equaliser with just a minute left on the clock.
How significant that goal turns out to be in the final reckoning of the promotion race remains to be seen, but in the short term as the ball crossed the line Leicester's lead over Ipswich went from ten points to seven.
Let's be honest though, that's not the real quiz here as even the most die-hard Ipswich fan is probably not putting their energy into the idea that last season's League 1 runners up are going to make up such a gap. The far more pertinent consequence of Sarmiento's equaliser was that it sent Ipswich from third up to second and back above Southampton. Anyone with even the shallowest of knowledge of England's second tier will understand that for Ipswich to even be in the company of the current crop of year one parachute teams, let alone above two of them with 18 games to play, is borderline miraculous.
They've confounded the normal hierarchy thus far and the extra edge that an exciting loan signing like Sarmiento can give helps keep the seemingly impossible dream alive.
