13:06
Hello world!
It’s that time again. Saturday afternoon brings just the one Premier League fixture but also the usual avalanche of action across the Football League. Let’s start with a run-through of today’s fixtures.
The best of the Championship games is probably at Swansea, where Bristol City, who after a run of six successive league defeats appointed Nigel Pearson and immediately won at Middlesbrough in midweek, while talking of high-impact managerial appointments Mick McCarthy’s Cardiff juggernaut heads to Boro on a six-match winning run. Rotherham’s game against Reading might be 22nd v 5th but Reading have four points from their last six and the early-season pace-setters could be out of the play-off places by the end of the day (I write this without knowing the result of the early kick-off at Bournemouth).
In League One there are a couple of interesting games towards the bottom, with Northampton (23rd) heading to Swindon (19th, and two points ahead) and Burton (24th) going to Rochdale (18th, three points ahead). In League Two Bolton are the form side, with five wins and a drawn in their last six, and they could rise into the play-off places if they beat Barrow today – although they have played between one and four more games than all of their main rivals for those spots.
Here are today’s fixtures in full. And hello!
Premier League
Leeds v Aston Villa (5.30pm)
Man City v West Ham (12.30pm)
Newcastle v Wolverhampton (8pm)
West Brom v Brighton
Championship
Barnsley v Millwall
Birmingham v QPR
Blackburn v Coventry
Bournemouth v Watford (12.30pm)
Brentford v Stoke
Luton v Sheff Wed
Middlesbrough v Cardiff
Preston North End v Huddersfield
Rotherham v Reading
Swansea v Bristol City
League One
Bristol Rovers v Shrewsbury
Charlton v Blackpool
Crewe v Sunderland
Fleetwood Town v Accrington Stanley
Ipswich v Doncaster
Milton Keynes Dons v Oxford Utd
Peterborough v Wigan
Plymouth v Lincoln City
Portsmouth v Gillingham
Rochdale v Burton Albion
Swindon v Northampton
Wimbledon v Hull
League Two
Bolton v Barrow
Carlisle v Oldham
Crawley Town v Exeter (1pm)
Forest Green v Colchester (5.30pm)
Harrogate Town v Grimsby
Leyton Orient v Tranmere
Mansfield v Morecambe
Newport County v Stevenage
Port Vale v Cambridge Utd
Scunthorpe v Cheltenham
Southend v Salford City
Walsall v Bradford
National League
Premier Boreham Wood v Solihull Moors
Bromley v Altrincham
Dover v Maidenhead Utd (postponed because of Dover’s financial crisis)
Hartlepool v Barnet (5.20pm)
King’s Lynn Town v Weymouth
Stockport County v Chesterfield
Wrexham v Wealdstone
Yeovil v Dag & Red
Scottish Premiership
Celtic v Aberdeen
Hibernian v Motherwell
Kilmarnock v Dundee Utd
St Mirren v Ross County