The Championship league table is starting to take shape, a quarter of the way through the season, with last years Premiership relegated teams Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion continuing their push for an automatic return to the top tier.
Newcastle were easy winners against a Peterborough side who are struggling for form and find themselves unceremoniously dumped at the bottom of the table, thanks to Roy Keane’s Ipswich picking up a point from the 1-1 draw with Reading.
West Brom who faced a recent dip in fortune found their way back to winning ways at Leicester, who despite the 2-1 loss remain in the dogfight for promotion play off places in sixth. Albion are clinging to Newcastle’s shirt tails in second place, two points behind the Magpies.
The game of the weekend in the Championship, for me anyway, was the clash between Welsh clubs Swansea and Cardiff. Cardiff have been scoring goals for fun as Ron Atkinson might say and were favourites going into the tie. Swansea have been doing pretty well themselves following the adjustments at the club following the departure of Roberto Martinez.
New manager Paulo Sousa has instilled a winning mentality into the Swans and before Saturday’s derby they were unbeaten in nine games, having conceded only ten goals and five points adrift of Cardiff but heading in the right direction.
Cardiff manager Dave Jones on the other hand has a team that had scored 31 goals, the division’s top scorers, and had just picked up the Manager of the Month award for guiding the team to third in the Championship.
On the day it was Swansea who came out on top in an enthralling encounter which they won 3-2, with two goal Darren Prately the player of the match. It is hard to argue with the result, Swansea just having that extra edge throughout an excellent and exciting game, for a neutral.
Elsewhere, Middlesbrough continue their free fall from the top of the league, even Gordon Strachan needs time it seems, Crystal Palace taking three points from them with a 1-0 win.
As ever in the Championship, at least half of the table are within early sight of the automatic and promotion play off places, leaving the other half desperately trying to accumulate enough points not to be dragged into a relegation place.
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