EFL preview: Managerial tipping points and top guns

Three-and-a-half months into the season club owners will have seen enough to suggest the direction of travel for the remainder of the campaign.

As the Championship returns from its third break of the season and leagues one and two continue to take shape, where will the spotlight fall this weekend?

If Coventry City can sack the seemingly un-sackable Mark Robins then no manager can ever feel truly safe and this weekend presents potential straws to break the back of even the most patient of camel.

With that in mind, the return of the Championship and Luton Town at home to Hull City feels big for the respective bosses.

Rob Edwards has had his future publicly discussed at length following Luton's disappointing return to the second tier and less understanding owners might have already made a change, but the Hatters' manager has plenty of credit in the bank from their Premier League promotion in 2023.

In saying that, five defeats from their past nine games and coming off the back of a 5-1 hammering at Middlesbrough, Edwards needs a win to steady the ship and, by a quirk of fate, the first game after the international break pits him against another under-fire manager.

Tim Walter's Hull City are on a seven-game winless run which has dropped them, like Luton, to within goal difference of the relegation zone and defeats by Oxford and West Bromwich Albion before the break will only have heightened the attention on the German's position and this game.

With four wins and four draws from their past eight games, Sunderland's promotion credentials under Regis Le Bris face a real litmus test in the next week starting at Millwall on Saturday.

The Londoners are one of the country's form teams having gone from 18th place on 19 October to now sit in eighth with four wins and two draws and just two goals conceded in the process.

For the record, Sunderland follow their trip to Millwall with a home game against West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday and a face-off with second placed Sheffield United next Friday.

Speaking of Sheffield United, having had plenty of time to bask in the glory of a steel city derby win over Sheffield Wednesday they could end the weekend top of the pile but will need to win at Coventry City to stand a chance of doing so.

Who will be in the Coventry technical area remains to be seen but for Sky Blues fans there will be familiar faces in the opposition line-up as Gustavo Hamer and Callum O'Hare return to the Coventry Building Society Arena for the first time having been key members of the side which came so close to Premier League promotion in 2023.

Leeds United could find themselves five points adrift of the top two before they visit Swansea City on Sunday while Burnley, with just one goal in four matches, head to a Bristol City side beaten only once in eight games.

Mind you, if Burnley fans think they have had slim pickings in front of goal spare a thought for the regulars at The Hawthorns where the seven home games for West Bromwich Albion have produced the sum total of three goals and four 0-0 draws.

But the Baggies' meeting with Norwich City could be one to watch as it brings the division's two leading scorers face-to-face as Borja Sainz (11) heads to the West Midlands with the home side boasting Josh Maja who has scored nine goals.

Meanwhile at the bottom, QPR are hoping a clearing of the medical room will see an upturn in fortunes with defenders Morgan Fox and Kenneth Paal and top scorer Michael Frey all set to be fit for the home meeting with Stoke City.

It might not have worked out at QPR but Gareth Ainsworth is back in management and perhaps on more familiar territory as he takes charge of rock bottom Shrewsbury Town for the first time on Saturday against League One title favourites Birmingham City.

Having frequently defied the odds in more than 10 years in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, Ainsworth will need all his know how to extract the Shrews from their predicament at the foot of the third tier.

"There could be a little bit of pain at the start, but I'm asking for patience and I'm asking for the town to get behind us and to buy into what we are trying to do," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

Birmingham City and third placed Wrexham, who host Exeter City, might take the limelight in the third tier but it is Wycombe who lead the way heading into the weekend.

With eight successive wins in all competitions Matt Bloomfield has taken his side two points clear at the top but they face a serious test at sixth-placed Lincoln City, who are making quietly impressive progress under Michael Skubala.

"We're still just trying to move ourselves forward - we've had a good start but there's so much football still to play and we're certainly not getting above our station or ahead of where we are," Bloomfield told the BBC's Monday Night Club.

As with Championship leaders Sunderland, Wycombe have a big week as they follow the game at Lincoln with a home match against Mansfield Town on Tuesday.

Often a divisive character, supporters of Crawley Town and Rotherham United will probably agree Steve Evans is responsible for some of their happier memories in recent years.

Evans brought the Sussex club into the EFL in 2011 before leading the Millers to successive promotions into the Championship.

But the storm clouds are gathering over Evans' second stint in charge of Rotherham and with three defeats in their past four League One matches, a loss to Crawley on Saturday would haul them even closer to the drop zone.

With the top two of Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra not meeting each other until Monday night it is difficult not to switch your attention to the wrong end of League Two this weekend.

In the week in which he claimed the club's training ground is haunted, Ian Holloway's Swindon Town, who are just one point above the relegation zone, host bottom of the table Morecambe.

Yet to win an EFL game since the former Blackpool boss took over, Swindon have only tasted victory at their County Ground home in League Two once so far this season.

"We've got to win more games and I'd prefer to do it now, straight away, because then we'll all feel a bit better," Holloway told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

As for Morecambe, seven of their 10 points have come away from home this term and victory in Wiltshire would move them level on points with Swindon.

Staying at the bottom, Carlisle United boss Mike Williamson feels a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions is beginning to show the fruits of their labour but that improvement will face a stiff examination from Doncaster Rovers in Cumbria where a win for Grant McCann's side would push them up to second place.

Five wins on the bounce makes MK Dons the form team in League Two and they are at mid-table Fleetwood Town.

The BBC Sport website will have live text coverage of the EFL action this weekend starting on Friday night as Plymouth Argyle host Watford in the Championship and Cheltenham Town meet Tranmere Rovers in League Two.