Cardiff showed that their recent form was just a blip as they returned to winning ways with an away victory over Wigan on Saturday.

However, the crisis at Newport County deepened as they fell to a ninth defeat in 10 games with a heavy 4-1 loss at Chesterfield.

Swansea and Wrexham continued to pick up their points at a sluggish rate, with a pair of 1-1 draws at home in the Championship.

Let’s get into the action, starting with Cardiff getting back on track:

What a difference a week can make

Last week, Cardiff and manager Brian Barry-Murphy were in danger of undoing all their good work at the start of the season.

A 1-1 draw at Stockport County was followed by a laboured 0-1 win at Exeter in the EFL Trophy – including a red card for Cian Ashford – and then a 1-3 home thumping by Bradford City really started to ring the alarm bells.

After such a positive start to the season, Cardiff found themselves in fourth and at risk of falling away from the early front runners at the top of League One.

A trip to Burnley in the League Cup galvanised Barry-Murphy’s charges. Cardiff played some great football as they sped into a 0-2 lead at the break, holding on for the second half against Premier League opposition.

Bringing that renewed confidence into Saturday’s clash with Wigan, this was the Cardiff side that fans have become accustomed to in recent months. Perry Ng opened the scoring with a lovely team move before Yousef Salech sealed the result from the penalty spot.

With a trio of highly winnable home league games to come, Cardiff are back on track and looking up at the teams above them.

Winless Newport suffer latest League Two setback

You know it’s bad when clubs are able to end their own winless runs when they play you. Chesterfield ended their four-game winless run with an all-too-comfortable 4-1 victory over Newport on Saturday, consigning the Welsh club to a ninth defeat in 10.

Despite concerns over recent form, Hughes hopes fans are able to see aspects of improvement – and is determined to deliver to repay their faith.

He said: “It’s been really clear that players need the support – and the fans have been outstanding in how they’ve stuck with it.

“I think you look at every game we’ve played at home, players have been cheered off, which is really, really important.

“So what we have to do is keep giving them that spirit, that grit, that determination, creating an environment where the opposition know when they turn up at Rodney Parade it is going to be tough. So we thank them for sticking with us and they can rest assured we’re doing everything we can to get that next three points for them.”

Has Wrexham’s form turned a corner?

After a winning week – in the league over Norwich and League Cup over Reading – Wrexham seem to be gaining some much need momentum following their best step up in quality since the Hollywood takeover.

Pressure on manager Phil Parkinson has eased and their 1-1 draw with Derby County seems to have continued that upward trend.

Lewis O’Brien’s 59th-minute header at the Cae Ras was cancelled out by Ben Brereton Diaz’s stunning strike as the points were shared in north Wales.

But the draw with the Rams meant Wrexham are unbeaten in three matches across all competitions, and Parkinson believes his side – who had more possession, shots and shots on target against Derby – are showing signs of growth in the second tier.

“If you look at the run we’ve had, the Preston win, the Millwall win, we lost to QPR then we’ve won at Norwich and on Tuesday (against Reading) and drawn today, we’re definitely seeing some consistency in our play,” said the Wrexham boss.

“We’re definitely learning as a team. The lads who have come up with us are learning about the demands of the Championship.”

Swans stutter after being denied ‘clear penalty’

Swansea’s spluttering campaign continued to lack momentum after a 1-1 draw with Milwall saw Alan Sheehan’s side denied a “stonewall penalty”.

With the score deadlocked a 1-1, Zan Vipotnik – who had put the Swans into the lead after 12 minutes – appeared to be pulled back by Jake Cooper as he tried to meet a 75th-minute cross from Josh Tymon.

That was the second contentious decision in successive games that had gone against Swansea, who had a Vipotnik goal incorrectly disallowed for being offside during last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Birmingham City.

“It’s a stonewall penalty. I don’t know what else to say without making an excuse for it,” said Sheehan.

“It’s a penalty. These are the decisions right now. Yeah, we had one last week, we’ve had one this week.

“The way the league is at the moment, they’re very tight games. You see bottom teams at the moment beating top teams and everything in between. It’s not really settled down yet, so these are the games you want to keep accumulating points and yeah, it’s a decision that I feel that the referee got wrong.”

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