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Page last updated at 07:46 GMT, Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Ask Steve Claridge

Steve Claridge
Claridge is a pundit for The Football League Show and Football Focus

Newcastle United midfielder Kevin Nolan was named the best player in the Championship at the Football League awards on Sunday.

I give my opinion on Nolan, and the rest of the team who have put the Magpies in a great position to bounce back to the Premier League.

I also take a look at Doncaster's impressive recent form as well as examining the prospects of Huddersfield and Millwall, who are both chasing promotion out of League One, and give my view on the managerial situation at Hereford United.

If you have a question for me, you can submit it through Twitter at http://twitter.com/AskClaridge or use the form on the top right of the page.


Who currently would you pick as the player of the year in the Championship?
Jack Supple on Twitter

Well, for a start, it is very odd to dish out these awards at this time of the season. The players vote at the end of January, which is only about halfway through the season. I know they can't do it in the summer but they could wait another couple of months at least.

Do I agree with Nolan getting the award? I don't think there has been one outstanding player in the Championship this season - but he has been one of several at Newcastle who have been very good.

Kevin Nolan

Nolan named top Championship player

If you asked me now who is Newcastle's most important player, I'd say Andy Carroll because of the number of goals he has scored in recent weeks.

But Peter Lovenkrands has got a great scoring record too - and Nolan and Jonas Gutierrez are doing exactly what is asked of them.

All the Newcastle players have applied themselves fantastically well. They would not be top of the division and on the run they are on unless they were willing to stand up and be counted. The Magpies have only lost four games all season because when they are in trouble they always find a way of getting themselves out of a hole.

But I'm going to leave it a bit later before I decide my player of the season in the Championship, League One and League Two... I think it's worth waiting to see how the season pans out, and I don't have to worry about having to organise an event to dish out the awards either!

It's slightly annoying that Doncaster Rovers get such little coverage on the Football League Show, particularly as we're playing so well at the moment. Also it seems that Rovers don't 'win' games, more the 'big clubs' slip up when we beat them. Why can't we get an acknowledgement that Rovers simply were the better side occasionally?
Charles Hirst, UK

I hope Charles was watching the Football League Show on Saturday when I said that Doncaster were my dark horses for a play-off spot. I certainly wouldn't write them off. With the way the Championship is, they are definitely in there with a chance.

And I think they are beginning to get the respect they deserve elsewhere too. Losing to them is no disgrace, or big deal, it's happening more and more often.

Doncaster 2-1 Derby

Doncaster beat Derby on Saturday

I still remember when one of their former chairmen tried to burn their old Belle Vue ground down in 1995 and it is only seven years since they were in what is now called the Blue Square Premier so they have come a long way in a short space of time and they are a good club with a canny manager in Sean O'Driscoll.

O'Driscoll loves footballers and encourages people to try to get the ball down and play. I don't think you can not like how he gets his teams playing.

Billy Sharp has played a big part in their good form too. It's ironic because Sheffield United, from whom he is on loan, are struggling yet he is absolutely rocketing the goals in.

Billy thrives in the right environment, which is possibly not the pressured environment of a bigger club, but another reason he is doing so well is because he's playing every week now, whereas with the Blades he never really got a foothold.

After an 11-match unbeaten run, the wheels seem to have come off Huddersfield's season with three successive defeats in League One. We have invested quite considerably in younger players, but the team lacks one or two older heads, particularly in midfield, to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Up front, Jordan Rhodes also seems to be going through a goal drought after a bright start. Do you think we can still make the play-offs?
Nick Shackleton, UK

I don't think anyone should push the panic button at Huddersfield because they have just come up short against a couple of good sides.

But, all of a sudden, they are a few points off the play-offs and, after the season they have had, it will be a big disappointment if they finish outside the top six.

Huddersfield 1-3 Norwich (UK users only)

Huddersfield 1-3 Norwich

What's gone wrong? Possibly they are just lacking a bit of experience when and where it matters.

I've never really been part of a side that has lost form around now, at such a critical time of the season, but I've joined teams that are out of form and, when I went to Leicester in March 1996, they had lost seven of their previous 10 games.

When you are in that sort of situation then it is down to the manager to sort it out and maybe Terriers boss Lee Clark needs to do a bit of wheeling and dealing in the loan market to bring in a couple of new faces, or just freshen up his tactics a bit.

Huddersfield have spent good money there; Clark's had a good budget to work with and they've backed him properly with the scouting networks he wanted. He won't want to fall at the final hurdle for the sake of the cost of a couple of loan players that could turn things around for them. It's certainly not too late for them to do so.

Millwall have been overlooked as potential candidates for automatic promotion from League One this season, but their recent form and forthcoming fixtures suggest they are the team to look out for. What are you thoughts?
Ian, Belgium

Millwall are on an incredible run and they laid down a real marker with their win over Charlton over the weekend. They are in good form but until recently, they have always been on the periphery of the promotion race which is why nobody has really thought about them for automatic promotion.

They have cemented a play-off spot when it appeared that would be a bit of a struggle. It's not a surprise for me to see them doing as well as they are but I still think it is a long shot for them to go up automatically.

Millwall 4-0 Charlton (UK only)

Millwall 4-0 Charlton

They play Leeds on Monday, a game they have to win to have a chance of making the top two but, even if they do, I think automatic promotion might still be beyond them.

Still, I think the play-offs are a good enough effort this season, and they will certainly go into them in very good nick - nobody will want to play them in the form they are in.

Who do you think should be Hereford's next manager?
Paul Hopkins, England

Firstly, I'm not sure what Hereford United were expecting this season. In the grand scheme of things, with crowds of around 2-3,000 and the budget they must have to work with, are they really that short of where they should be?

Ultimately, their first brief at the start of the season has to be to try and stay in that division. I don't quite know where Graham Turner thinks they should be or why he sacked John Trewick - but Trewick worked as coach under Turner when he was still manager so it cannot have been an easy decision.

I don't know what Trewick's budget was but, from the outside looking in, if you'd asked me at the start of the season where they should finish you wouldn't be far away from where they are now.

I don't know what Turner is looking for in a new manager but, even if I found the decision to sack Trewick surprising, I can understand the timing of his departure.

Hereford are not going to get relegated from League Two so it is a good time to bring in a new manager because he can have a quick look at the squad before the summer and decide who to get rid of and who to bring in. It's an ideal situation for whoever gets the job.


Steve Claridge is a BBC Football League pundit who played more than 800 matches for 15 clubs over the course of a 24-year playing career. He was talking to Chris Bevan.



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