Championship

Sports Mole's Championship Team of the Week

By Pascal Lemesre, Football League Editor | 24 March 2014

Sports Mole picks out its top performers from Gameweek 37 in the Championship as well as highlighting the biggest numpty and best goal.

Almost all of the 24 teams in the Championship now have just 10 games or fewer remaining this season following Saturday's full schedule.

Leicester City and Burnley remain on course for automatic promotion, with both yet to suffer defeat in 2014 and on unbeaten runs of 17 and 15 games respectively.

The last four playoff spots are up for grabs though and it was a great weekend for Derby County, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic and Reading, who all won their games.

At the other end of the table, Barnsley remain bottom after suffering late heartbreak against Bournemouth.

Yeovil Town were the only bottom-five team to pick up anything, but should have had more as they surrendered a two-goal lead against Bolton Wanderers.

Here, Sports Mole selects its best XI, highlights the biggest numpty and chooses its favourite goal from the weekend's games.

Sam Johnstone (Doncaster Rovers)
A big win for Donny as they squeezed past Sheffield Wednesday, who had scored seven goals in their previous two games but couldn't get past Manchester United loanee Johnstone at the Keepmoat.

Tony McMahon (Blackpool)
Blackpool have now won two home games in a row and on Saturday against Huddersfield McMahon was solid at right-back for the Seasiders.
Tommy Smith (Ipswich Town)
Ipswich still have an outside chance of reaching the playoffs thanks to Saturday's 2-0 victory at rivals Brighton & Hove Albion. New Zealand international Smith bravely headed the Tractor Boys in front while also keeping a clean sheet at the Amex.
Steve Cook (Bournemouth)
Cook piled more misery on Barnsley by bundling home in the dying moments to ensure that Bournemouth stayed in the top half of the table.
Ben Mee (Burnley)
Burnley's other full-back, Kieran Trippier, has stolen much of the limelight away from the rest of the Burnley defence this season, but on Saturday Mee stood out as Charlton Athletic were brushed aside by the high-flying Clarets.

Craig Conway (Blackburn Rovers)
Conway has been one of Blackburn's star performers recently and on Saturday curled over the corner that Matthew Kilgallon headed home for Blackburn's equaliser against league leaders Leicester.
Craig Bryson (Derby County)
The standout player of the weekend was Rams midfielder Bryson, who netted a memorable hat-trick in Derby's 5-0 thrashing of arch rivals Nottingham Forest.
Jobi McAnuff (Reading)
Royals skipper McAnuff scored both goals for Nigel Adkins's side as they moved back into the playoff places with a 2-1 win at Birmingham City.
Tom Lawrence (Yeovil)
The Glovers may have thrown away three points against Bolton, but Manchester United loanee Lawrence impressed with his attacking display.

Daryl Murphy (Ipswich)
Murphy was given the tough task of leading the Ipswich line on his own against Brighton. He gave the Seagulls' defenders a tough afternoon in the air, also nodding back across goal for Smith's opener and then sealing the win with a clever looping header 10 minutes from time.
Ricardo Fuller (Blackpool)
As mentioned above, Blackpool are finally back to winning ways and in both recent home wins over Huddersfield and Millwall, Fuller has scored the winner. His goal on Saturday was a clinical near-post strike that fizzed into the net.

Numpty of the Week

Dimitrios Konstantopoulos: After starting as our goalkeeper of the week seven days ago, the 35-year-old Greek is this week's biggest numpty. The Middlesbrough stopper might have been unlucky that the ball bobbled over his wild swipe to clear, but his swing-and-miss gift-wrapped QPR the points at the Riverside.

Goal of the Week

DJ Campbell (Millwall) vs. Leeds United: Millwall's chances of staying up might have taken a hit as they went down at Elland Road, but Campbell scored the pick of this weekend's goals with a rising half-volley that Jack Butland could do nothing about.