The Championship season so far

Article by Watford Correspondent Christopher Lawton

November, and we are fast approaching a third of the way though the season. The blue skies, sunshine and green pitches of summer have given way to wind, rain and matches under floodlights. This is where the hard graft begins for clubs in the Championship. Seasons can still be turned around: the push for promotion begins here while the battle to avoid relegation becomes a matter of trench warfare on mud laden pitches.

So how do the teams fare after the early skirmishes? Well it seems only right to split the table into three groups of eight - those early front runners, the midtable battlers, and those already looking down rather than up.

Ask people who would be top of the Championship after 14 matches and I wager very few would have proffered Burnley as a response. They are the team of the moment and Sean Dyche has them well organised and playing to their strengths. With all due respect to Burnley's achievements, however, the team to beat right now is Leicester. Nigel Pearson's side are play confident football and have the squad to mount a sustained challenge for top spot over the coming months. Their surprisingly comfortable victory over Watford last time out only reinforces this view.

The other surprise in the top eight is Blackpool. Paul Ince has but together a team that is hard to beat and in Tom Ince they have a player who can change a game in their favour. Whether they can last the distance remains to be seen, but they have the consistency that suggests they will hold their own for a while yet.

Mid-table obscurity is the dread of every fan and yet some teams already look destined to end up there. Derby and Middlesbrough clearly hoped for better starts to the season - why else sack the two longest serving managers in the division - yet both seem to be missing the key players that will propel them into the upper reaches of the division.

Blackburn may yet surprise, but a lot depends on Jordan Rhodes and his goals are vital to the team's hopes this season. Yet there is a dark cloud on the horizon, Blackburn's recent financial results suggest all is not well off the pitch and it would not be a surprise to see Rhodes sold in the transfer window. Such a decision would likely scupper any outside chance of making a push for the playoffs.

Wigan, many people's favourites to go straight back up, are struggling for consistency with their European exploits. While trips to foreign soil are a great adventure for the fans, one hopes that the imminent trip to Rubin Kazan does not involve taking the overnight train from Moscow with its four berth sleeping compartments.

Bournemouth meanwhile have done well to adjust to a return to the second tier of English football and although their away form is poor have done well enough at home to suggest that they should survive the campaign.

At the foot of the table it is no surprise to find Yeovil, who have scored the least goals, and Barnsley who have conceded the most. Yeovil are well organised, but a return of just nine goals in 14 matches shows where the problems lie. Barnsley meanwhile, having barely managed to survive last season, find themselves shipping goals at an alarming rate at over two per game. Both sides will surely try to loan in a player or two over the coming weeks in a bid to change their fortunes.

While it is a surprise to see Birmingham so low in the table it is perhaps not totally unexpected either. Their off pitch issues seem to have finally taken their toll on the playing side and it is entirely possible that the team could enter administration before the end of the year.

Finally, I wonder what Dougie Freedman is thinking. It is just over a year since he walked out on Crystal Palace to join Bolton. Since then Palace have gone on to promotion and Bolton are sitting at the wrong end of the table with just two league wins so far this season.

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