The League One runners and riders – who is romping home?
Blues played out a goalless draw earlier in the season, while Oxford United played some really attractive, attacking football in City's 3-3 draw at the Kassam Stadium, where Mark Robins's men gave them two own goals!
But I'll go with Doncaster Rovers, who not only played terrific football, but also looked a real goal threat against Coventry in a 1-1 draw at St Andrew's and a 1-0 City win at the Keepmoat, where the visitors had to defend with their lives to see out the result.
- Coventry absolutely battered Tranmere Rovers at St Andrew's back in October, enjoying an incredible 71 per cent possession and 19 attempts on goal, but couldn't find a way past the parked bus and got caught with a classic suckerpunch when Corey Blackett-Taylor hit the 'home' side with a counter attack goal in the 83rd minute - Rovers' one and only attempt all game - to snatch a 1-0 win for the strugglers, and putting an end to the Sky Blues’ unbeaten run at their groundshare venue.
- No apologies for the bias but Mark Robins should win this hands down for playing every single Coventry City game away from home!
Having made wholesale changes in the summer, the Sky Blues' boss quickly galvanised his new-look squad and turned their St Andrew's groundshare stadium - 22-miles away from the city that bears the club's name into a fortress (W11, D5, L1) in front of half the previous season's 12,000 average gate at the Ricoh Arena.
It is a divided fanbase that has had to endure its second exile in the space of six years.
- Paul Lambert. Although he feels his squad isn't strong enough, the fact is that most managers outside the top eight would probably give their right arm for the talent he has at his disposal.
That quality came through when he led Ipswich to top of the league earlier in the seasonbuthesomehowmanaged to mess it up by chopping and changing his side with what many locals and experts perceived as a crazy squad rotation policy that has blown up in his face.
The only mitigating circumstances are that Town have suffered horrendous injuries more recently, but the rot set in way before the players started dropping like flies. Tom Cavilla Tranmere Rovers
Liverpool
Echo
- I would have to go with Karl Robinson’s Oxford United side, who played Tranmere off the park in a 3-0 win at the Kassam Stadium back in September.
Cameron Brannagan is a joy to watch in his midfield role and made everyone on the Tranmere team appear rather below par.
In attack, Ben Woodburn and Tariqe Fosu were causing all kinds of problems with their pace.
Football that’s easy on the eye and exciting for supporters.
- The majority of matches in which Tranmere have dropped points this season has, predominantly, been self-inflicted.
One game they were possibly unfortunate to lose, though, was their 1-0 home defeat to Sunderland in late January.
Phil Parkinson’ s side managed only one shot on target during the 90 minutes, arriving in the form of Charlie Wyke’s 60th minute winner.
A share of the spoils would have been a fairer reflection.
- When Tranmere walked away from
Stadium MK with a comfortable 3-1 victory in November, the Dons appeared dead and buried.
This defeat marked a ninth league loss in ten outings and saw Paul Tisdale’s dismissal announced shortly after the full-time whistle.
In came Russell Martin as his replacement, taking on his first managerial position.
Following his appointment, Martin masterminded impressive wins in quick succession against Oxford and Portsmouth, backed up by later triumphs over Bristol Rovers, Rochdale, Wycombe and Bolton to ease relegation fears.
- It’s difficult to not select Paul Lambert.
Rovers were blown away by a ruthless second-half performance from Ipswich when the sides met early on in the season at Portman Road. This 4-1 win saw the Tractor Boys maintain top spot in the division, having claimed an impressive 24 points out of a possible 30 on offer.
After watching that performance, which highlighted Town’s quality in all areas of the pitch, anything but promotion seemed out of the question. The fact they currently find themselves tenth in League One is rather difficult to comprehend and can only be viewed as a poor season, which showed real promise for a long period.