It is often said that a week is a long time in football and never has that been more evident as I reflect on the week just passed, writes Tom Schofield.

Despite the three points against Barnsley it’s fair to say there was still a lot of doom and gloom lingering in the air.

I include myself in that as well, I wasn’t happy with the performance against Barnsley and made that clear last week.

The performance against Brentford was much improved, Danny Graham made a welcome return to the 11, but special praise must be reserved for Corry Evans who was fantastic in both the game against Brentford and on Saturday against Stoke.

The change in results and performances isn’t as simple as playing what many may perceive to be the best 11, Evans and Stewart Downing as a left back certainly weren’t in mine a fortnight ago, it goes some way to combatting those issues though.

No more square pegs in round holes we cry, the aforementioned Stewart Downing aside of course.

Still, he has taken to that position very well in the past two matches, so perhaps it isn’t quite the mismatch it at first seems.

It’s no surprise then that for the first time since relegation from the Premier League in 2012 that we were able to pick up nine points in seven days in the Championship.

As I said at the head of this article, a week is a long time in football and all of a sudden we are looking up the table rather than down.

Last week there was genuine fear of a potential relegation battle, for now at least that has subsided and people are starting to talk of that four point gap from the play-offs.

Of course that talk is very premature, it goes to show what this run of results has done to our confidence though. We don’t feel quite as anxious, that’s only a good thing.

Suddenly it doesn’t all seem so bad, we can rest happy knowing that we have picked up 12 points from a possible 15 in November.

The pressure has by no means disappeared, it’s been eased though.

As we approach the busy festive season we are a point better off this season than at the same point last year.

We’d just been embarrassed by Preston and Wigan then. So that’s progress, right?