Despite five postponements there was plenty of action in the Championship this weekend as the seven surviving games yielded over twenty four goals and a host of dramatic and entertaining football.

There was plenty of late drama to boot as Luciano Becchio scored two late goals to usurp a Neil Danns opener in the Leeds v Crystal Palace game, elsewhere Cardiff scored late to deny Preston a victory they needed desperately.

This week’s Championship game of the week also featured late drama in a game that included five goals, a dramatic comeback and a twist that all ensured an entertaining and gripping game at Vicarage Road.

Watford appeared to have the game wrapped up after just 22 minutes as  John Eustace and Will Buckley scored without reply to put the Hornets firmly in the driving seat.

Whilst the Eustace goal was the result of a well worked routine the second goal was farcical as goalkeeper Chris Weale misjudged a through ball allowing Will Buckley to slot the ball into an open net.

The score remained unchanged up to half time and Watford seemed to be cruising to a comfortable victory. However the adage that a two goal lead is the most dangerous lead in football was proved conclusive as Andrew Taylor handled a Kyle Naughton cross inside the area and Paul Gallagher converted the resulting penalty to put Leicester back in the match.

Leicester went on to complete the comeback as Paul Gallagher scored his second in a weekend of braces across the Championship. The Scottish striker taking advantage of another dead ball situation albeit from the  edge of the area rather than the penalty spot, as he whipped the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

So in twenty four second half minutes Leicester were back level, however this was not the end of the story as Danny Graham set Vicarage road alight by glancing an 85^thminute header past Weale and secure the points for Malky Mackay’s men.

This was a great result for Watford who climbed a mammoth five places to go tenth, in large part to the large number of postponements

Five goals, a fightback and a late winner what more could you ask for from a game of football, unless of course you are on the losing side.

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The thrid round of the FA Cup draw is out and here is who the teams of the CCC will face. The ties will be played the weekend of January 3, 2009. If the tie is tied then a replay will be played.

Portsmouth v Bristol City – Ashton Gate

Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham – Hillbrough

Preston NE v Liverpool – Deepdale

Birmingham City v Wolves – St. Andrew’s Stadium

West Ham United v Barnsley – Upton Park

Manchester City v Nottingham Forest – Eastlands

Cardiff City v Reading – Ninan Park

Ipswich Town v Chesterfield/Droylesden – Portman Road

Charlton v Norwich – The Valley

Torquay v Blackpool – Plainmoor

Leyton Orient v Sheffield United – Brisbane Road

Southampton v Manchester United – St. Mary’s Stadium

Histon v Swansea City – Bridge Road

Forest Green Rovers v Derby County – The New Lawn

QPR v Burnley – Turf Moor

Leicester City v Crystal Palace – Walkers Stadium

Morcambe/Cheltenham v Doncaster

Arsenal v Plymouth – Emirates Stadium

Watford v Scunthorpe – Vicarage Road

Coventry City v Kidderminster – Richo Arena

The transfer window may be closed but Championship Teams are still active in the loan market. Deals that are struck between clubs about transfers won’t go through until Janruary 1st, 2009. Here is the latest activity in the loan market:

Andy Todd: From Derby County to Northampton Town

Keith Gillespie: From Sheffield United to Charlton Athletic

Chris Weale: From Bristol City to Hereford United

Luke Varney: From Charlton to Derby County (will be made permanate in Jan for 1M)

Graham Stack: From Plymouth to Blackpool

Bartosz Slusarski: From West Brom to Sheffield Wed

Kurt Robinson: From Ipswich Town to Northampton Town

Kyel Reid: From West Ham to Blackpool

Steve Jones: From Burnley to Bradford City

Shane Higgs: From Cheltenham Town to Wolves

Joshua Gowing: From Bristol City to Hereford United

Mitchell Hanson: From Derby County to Notts County

Liam Dickenson: From Derby County to Blackpool

Mark Davies: From Wolves to Leicester

Jamie Cureton: From Norwich to Barnsley

Deon Burton: From Sheffield Wed to Charlton

Steve Brooker: From Bristol City to Doncaster

Liam Bridcutt: From Chelsea to Watford

Chris Birchall: From Coventry City to Carlisle United

Ashely Barnes: From Plymouth to Gainsbrough Trinity

A great weekend of football in the Championship including a stunning 6-0 Southampton win over promotion rivals Wolverhampton. The Saints had eight first-team regular players out (Gareth Bale, Chris Baird, Claus Lundekvam, Grzegorz Rasiak, Kenwyne Jones, Djamel Belmadi, Jhon Viafara and their first-choice goalkeeper Kelvin Davis) but saw on-loan Marek Saganowski bag a hat-trick. Saganowski, a Polish-born striker on loan from Liuge Une side Troyes AC, now has seven goals from ten appearances with Saints and should earn a permanent move to the club. Not to be outdone by his countryman, backup keeper Bartosz Bialkowski kept his clean sheet which included turning aside a poorly-struck penalty kick from Wolves’ Michael Kightly. The penalty was awarded after defender Chris Makin blatantly handled the ball inside his own area. You can catch a nice highlight package of the game over on YouTube. Look for Saganowski’s magnificently chipped goal around 3:10.

An enthusiastic thumbs-up to the Wolverhampton fans for their wonderful display of support for the team and Mick McCarthy. The fans sang his name even with the team down 4-0 and sang “We’re going to win 6-5″ with Southampton up 5-0. Of course, in football’s often-cruel nature, it was while the fans were singing that Saganowski was gifted his hat-trick goal to make the final scoreline a shocking 6-0.

In other matches from the weekend, the Football League legend – 38 year-old Dean Windass hit a hat-trick to ease Hull City’s relegation fears. The Tiger’s 4-0 win over Southend United heaps more pressure on the Shrimpers who now sit 22nd just ahead of Leeds on goal differential. Windass now has seven goals from twelve appearances in his second stint at Hull. The striker’s first came two minutes before half-time when Daryl Flahavan parried his penalty but could not prevent him firing in the rebound. A rare Flahavan error set up his second, his third was a fine 79th-minute volley. Full-back Sam Ricketts added the fourth.

Sunderland continued to keep the pressure on Birmingham for the second automatic promotion spot with a 1-nil victory over playoff hopefuls Cardiff City. Black Cats substitute Ross Wallace curled home a 72nd-minute free-kick, catching Neil Alexander off-guard as the Bluebirds keeper lined up his defensive wall. This was Sunderland’s 10th win in 14 League games this year.

Derby kept their lead atop the table with a club record 12th away League win this season. The Rams pulled a 2-1 result against 20th place Barnsley. Birmingham City maintained their second-place spot with a comfortable 3-0 win over Coventry. Stoke City kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Leicester City. The Potters Ricardo Fuller had a man of the match performance by scoring a penalty and architecting the other three goals to move his club to within 5 points of a playoff spot. Jon Parkin, Mamady Sidibe and on-loan Sunderland midfielder Liam Lawrence scored for Stoke.

The rest of the scores:
Burnley 0 Luton Town 0
Colchester 3 Norwich City 0
Crystal Palace 1 Sheffield Wed 2
Ipswich Town 3 Plymouth 0

This past Thursday was the deadline for Football League teams to arrange loan deals. In exceptional circumstances, clubs can apply for special dispensation to the Premier League or Football League to arrange deals outside these times – for instance, if they had no goalkeepers available. Here’s a quick look at four of the “bigger” names to join teams in the Championship for part or all of the stretch run.

One of the bigger moves was pulled off by Birmingham who signed veteran striker Andy Cole on loan from Portsmouth. The 35-year-old Cole had made only five starts for Pompey since joining from Manchester City for £500,000 in August 2006. Cole was anxious to move somewhere in order to get some playing time. Cole and Birmingham manager Steve Bruce are well aquainted having been team-mates at Manchester United from January 1995 until May 1996. Harry Redknapp has revealed that Cole was allowed to move on loan as he could not find the right chemistry on the pitch with Portsmouth’s top scorer Kanu. “When I’ve played Andy and Kanu together up front I’ve had no one to run in behind teams,” he said.

Hull City signed Bolton striker Ricardo Vaz Te on a one-month deal to help aid their fight against relegation. Manager Phil Brown used to be the assistant manager at Bolton and is familiar with the capabilities of Vaz Te. The pacy 20-year-old is a Portugese U-21 international and joined Bolton from SC Farense in August 2003.

Blackburn defender Michael Gray joined the struggling Leeds side for an initial month loan with a view to seeing out the rest of the season at Elland Road. Gray, 32, previously spent three months at Elland Road in 2005. He has not been a regular for Rovers this season, making just 12 first-team appearances.

Leicester City signed West Ham midfielder Shaun Newton on loan until the end of the season. The 31-year-old former Charlton and Wolves player is looking to rebuild his career after missing most of the season due to a drugs ban. Newton served a six-month ban after traces of cocaine were found in his system after a routine drugs test undertaken following West Ham’s FA Cup semi-final win over Middlesbrough. Newton joined West Ham for £10,000 in March 2005 and was an integral part of Alan Pardew’s promotion-winning squad of 2004/05.

If you are curious, the BBC has a complete listing of loan deals.