Sports Mole's Championship Team of the Week

The Championship season has reached the 40-game mark and it is still incredibly tight at the top.

Middlesbrough were the only side in the top three to record victory in the first round of fixtures over the Easter weekend as they piled more misery on lowly Wigan Athletic with a narrow win at the Riverside Stadium.

Bournemouth gave up the summit to Boro, but remain in the automatic-promotion places following a draw with Ipswich Town, while Watford missed out on the chance to go top as they were held by Derby County.

Norwich City are just a point behind the Cherries after edging out Brighton & Hove Albion, while the four sides challenging for the last two playoff places are separated by just a point.

At the other end of the table, Blackpool are not yet relegated, but will be confirmed as down if Rotherham United get the better of Brighton tomorrow.

Millwall gave their hopes of staying up a huge boost by squeezing out Charlton Athletic for their first win in 10, while Wigan remain five points from safety.

Here, Sports Mole chooses its best XI from Good Friday and Easter Saturday's action, in a traditional 4-4-2 formation, as well as highlighting the biggest numpty and best goal.

Bartosz Bialkowski (Ipswich Town)
Ipswich almost held out for back-to-back wins over sides leading the table, but conceded late on against Bournemouth at Portman Road. The Cherries dominated possession and could have easily taken the points had it not been for Bialkowski, who made a fingertip save in injury time to preserve the draw.

Lee Peltier (Cardiff City)
The Bluebirds earned a late point against Reading yesterday and Peltier stood out in an all-action right-back performance.
Jonathan Woodgate (Middlesbrough)
He might be 35 now, but Woodgate showed his defensive class with a near-faultless display against Wigan, helping Boro keep their 18th clean sheet of the season.
Peter Clarke (Blackpool)
The Tangerines know that they will soon be confirmed as relegated, but they still put up a fighting display in Saturday's Lancashire derby at Bolton Wanderers. Clarke was the standout defender for 90 minutes and would have been crushed when Eidur Gudjohnsen found the net in stoppage time to deny Blackpool their first away win of the season.
Jonathan Grounds (Birmingham City)
Birmingham got the better of relegation-threatened Rotherham United at St Andrew's on Good Friday and Grounds shone with a number of key clearances and interceptions.

Magaye Gueye (Millwall)
The Lions ended a nine-game winless streak for a much-needed three points against Charlton, who were the hottest team in the league following seven wins in nine games. Gueye only played the final 30 minutes, but scored the equaliser before setting up Jos Hooiveld's late winner.
Adlene Guedioura (Watford)
Watford might be a little annoyed not to have taken all three points off out-of-form Derby, but they did fairly well considering that they played half of the match with 10 men. Their equaliser came from Odion Ighalo, but it was the sublime pass from Guedioura which deserves all the credit.
Bradley Johnson (Norwich City)
Johnson scored his 11th goal of the season by netting the winner at The Amex Stadium. The former Leeds United man is enjoying his best-ever goalscoring campaign and ended a five-game mini drought.
Stuart Dallas (Brentford)
Dallas scored his first goals since January with a pair of fabulous strikes in the Bees' 4-1 win over West London rivals Fulham, which moved them back into the top six.

Jordan Rhodes (Blackburn Rovers)
It is now five goals in six games for Rhodes after he netted Blackburn's second in their 3-0 win over 10-man Leeds. It could have been more for the Scottish international, but he was unlucky to hit the woodwork on two occasions.
Benik Afobe (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
The January acquisition from Arsenal continues to impress and netted a fine solo effort in Wolves's 2-1 triumph at Nottingham Forest. It is nine goals in 15 appearances in a Wolves shirt for Afobe, whose goals have helped the Black Country club inch ever closer to the playoffs.

Numpty of the Week

Barry Bannan: The Scot pulled the strings for much of Bolton's game against Blackpool, but was guilty of an awful miss as he sidefooted against the upright with half of the goal at his mercy.

Goal of the Week

Jota (Brentford) vs. Fulham: Take your pick from any of Brentford's four goals at Craven Cottage. If we had to pick a favourite, it would be Jota's sweeping first-time finish to seal the win. The Bees' commentator certainly enjoyed them in the video below.