Welcome To The Championship

This weekend marked the return of the eagerly anticipated Championship season; arguably the most competitive and toughest league in Britain, with a clear group of 7+ sides all going to toe to toe at the bookies for promotion this year. With the ever present quality of the past Play-Off bound teams such as Cardiff and Nottingham Forest,    and teams such as Hull City and my own Leicester City with there radical pre-season team chopping and changing, the league looked set to be to be a somewhat free-for-all. In fact, even now that the first games week has passed, I still struggle to describe it as anything different to that.

Centre of attention: McCleish's move to Villa

 One of the interesting points this year even more so than other years; is the instatement and in some cases, reinstatement of clubs entering the Championship. From the heights of the Barclays Premier League, fell the household name teams of League Cup winners Birmingham City, the ever popular Ian Hollaway's Blackpool team, and the the team relegated under the most unpopular potentially in the nation, West Ham United. All three of these clubs have been in the limelight pre-season, perhaps most noticeably with Birmingham, as their previous manager Alex McLeish made a well publicised local-suicide attempt in moving to cross-city rivals, Aston Villa. Perhaps more significant than McLeish's resignation and Chris Hughton's appointment, were the developments at Upton Park, with the replacement for Avram Grant being confirmed as the proven manager of Sam Allardyce.

Parker: Heart of the Hammers wasn't beating

     All these changes therefore, make it ever more surprising that both teams, despite new managers and a raft of player additions, were both defeated by Championship regulars, Derby County and Cardiff City over the weekend. Okay, so in West Hams case, it may have been desperately unlucky to have hit the post and had  a goal line clearance go against them prior to a 90th minute goal by Kenny Miller. But still, the Hammers surprise defeat and Birmingham's low rate performance against a newly revamped Derby, have come somewhat as a surprise to me, as well im sure as many other Championship pundits and fans. The demise of these two teams weekend, therefore brings me to the team so desperately unlucky to succumb to relegation last year: Blackpool. Despite a well oiled performance by Nigel Peasons Hull City at their KC stadium, the tangerines style of passive, fluent player and ball movement ensured that Hollaway's men got off to a winning start upon their return to the Championship, courtesy of a fantastic strike by, in my opinion a highly under-rated striker, Gary Taylor-Fletcher.
   Okay, so bare with me here, I am going somewhere with this; more surprising then the defeats of Birmingham and West Ham, maybe the fortunes of the newly instated teams from last years League One: Brighton & Hove Albion, Southampton, and Peterborough United. All three teams recorded opening day victories, going against expectation in many cases, and causing cause for concern for managers throughout the league. So we'll start with Brighton: a team I personally tip for making the Play-Off's this year thanks to the momentum carried forward from their domination of last years League One campaign and the signing of 30 goal a season striker Craig Mackail-Smith, They had gave there new home at the AMEX Stadium a fitting fighting first win victory, thanks to  two late strikes from Brighton's Will Buckley.
  Despite losing Mackail-Smith to Brighton over the Summer, Peterborough also got off to a winning start against  Crystal Palace, with Darren Ferguson's men similarly coming from behind like the Seagulls to win 2-1. After conceding to a 33rd minute strike from Palace winger Sean Scannell, Posh  replied in the Second half with goals from Grant McCann and David Ball securing victory for the Championship returnees.

Both vocally and physically, Gradel was powerless

 Team of weekend without a doubt had to be Southampton, beating a Leeds United team who are regarded by many as favourites  for Automatic Promotion this year, by a convincing score line of 3-1. The goals were equally as impressive: Dean Hammond's long range finish being shortly followed by a just as impressive finish from Adam Lallana, all before half time. After the break, Southampton added to their tally courtesy of a neat finish from David Connolly, who  made it 3-0 to a team who looked calm, cool and collective in each third of the pitch throughout the match. Maxi Gradel's consistent moaning throughout the game eventually earned them a late penalty, which the Ivory Coast winger converted to make it 3-1, and that's how the game concluded.
 It maybe extremely earlier in this years Championship, with little to be taken away from the opening weekend of football, but one thing that I realised whilst watching a dull spell during Sunday's game at Upton Park, was the shear difference in the English football League ladder: during the past three seasons, promotion winners from League One have been able to at least feature in the Play-Off's of the Championship the year after, with Norwich going one better and gaining Automatic Promotion last year, at the first attempt. So what about teams being relegated from the Premier League? Remember Burnley? How about Portsmouth? Oh, and then there was Hull; all demoted from big shots in the worlds largest league, down to nothing more second rate Championship clubs. Middlesbrough also follow this trend; in fact the only team that comes to memory would be West Brom: the nations number one Yo-Yo team in terms crossing the bridge from Championship to Premier League, and visa versa.
 So, all thats left to say is: Good luck Blackpool, West Ham, And Birmingham. You'll need it.

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