The main winners of the weekend matches in League One were top side Swansea City. Swansea, last week's winners against Luton, were able to stretch their unbeaten league run to nine games after beating struggling Port Vale 2-0 at home, with Ferrie Bodde and Darren Pratley ensuring Swansea stretched their lead at the top to five points. They were able to do this because Nottingham Forest slipped up away to Swindon Town. Forest were three points off Swansea at the start of the day, but two own goals from James Perch and Ian Breckin were enough to give Swindon a 2-1 victory, and an excellent start to the reign of Maurice Malpas at Swindon. Luke Chambers scored the only goal for Forest, who also had Julian Bennett booked for dissent, even though he was an unused sub. Apparently he taunted the Swindon fans when a shot was cleared off the line for the Robins.
That result saw Forest slip to third place after Carlisle beat relegation threatened Crewe Alexandra at Brunton Park. Teenager Joe Garner scored his 13th goal of the season in an otherwise dull match at Carlisle to give Carlisle three points, moving the Cumbria side into the automatic promotion places. Leeds could have moved into second place, but they lost 1-0 to local rivals Doncaster Rovers courtesy of a Brian Stock free-kick in the first-half. That result moves Doncaster up to 4th place in League One, one place ahead of Leeds. The last play-off place is taken up by Leyton Orient, who moved up to 6th after beating Luton today, the less said about that the better.
At the bottom, things got no better for Bournemouth. Threatened with administration off the field, and threatened with relegation on the field, Bournemouth slipped to a 4-1 home defeat to Southend. Mark Gower (courtesy of a Russell Perrett mistake), Simon Francis, Tommy Black and Gary Hooper scored the goals for the Shrimpers, who won despite the absence of hard-working Dean Morgan, who has returned to Luton. Southend now move up to 8th, six points off the play-offs with a game in hand over Leyton Orient. Bournemouth remain bottom of the league, level on points with Port Vale, who they play next week. Millwall fared no better than the other teams in the bottom four, with a 1-0 home defeat against Tranmere Rovers. Rovers had been struggling in recent matches, but an Antony Kay header from a Paul McLaren free-kick in the dying moments of the match gave Tranmere their first win of the New Year, leaving Millwall in 21st place and a point off safety. They slipped into the bottom four on Friday, after an excellent win for Cheltenham Town at Hartlepool. Two goals from top scorer Steven Gillespie gave Cheltenham just their second away win of the season, and this win means Cheltenham have three wins in three, and Hartlepool are without a win in six. Cheltenham are now just three points off Hartlepool, who could be heading for a relegation fight, as they are now just four points off safety.
Elsewhere in League One, Bristol Rovers have pulled themselves away from relegation trouble with results in the last few matches. They are now unbeaten in five, after drawing at home to Walsall, who are unbeaten in fifteen. Edrissa Sonko scored in the first half, with what would turn out to be Walsall's only shot on target, and Craig Disley equalised for Rovers in the dying moments, to move Rovers up to 16th place. The result saw the Saddlers slip out of the play-off places because of Orient's win. Northampton have also done a lot to move away from relegation threats today, with a win at Gillingham. An early free-kick from Daniel Jones was enough to give the Cobblers a 1-0 win over the Gills, with the popular Andy D'Urso officiating the match. Yeovil Town and Oldham United fought out a 0-0 draw at Huish Park, maintaining both teams' mid table positions. There was also a draw at the Withdean Stadium between Brighton and Huddersfield, 1-1 the final scoreline in a match that was brought to life in the last twenty minutes. Tommy Elpihck scored his first senior goal with 74 minutes gone, but three minutes later, former Take That member Robbie Williams equalised with an excellent free-kick. The last minute saw controversy, as Brighton's Gary Hart and Huddersfield's Chris Brandon both picked up red cards in an ugly incident that apparently continued on the way to the dressing rooms at the end of the match.
Tuesday sees Luton travel to Bournemouth, looking for a second away win of the season, with Crewe and Millwall also in action midweek. Although Luton themselves lost at the weekend, most of the other important results went the right way so we didn't lose much ground. It is still too early to be talking about relegation really, but a result at Bournemouth would go a long way to ensuring survival.