2014/15: Sky Bet Championship Review – September 2014

Issue of the Month

To be honest, this could be any month of any year, but recent events have provoked me to making comment on the thorny subject of pricing, particularly for away supporters. Ticket prices are dictated by supply and demand or are they? I am confident every one of the 24 clubs could do more to encourage people attending.  The competition for bums on seats is greater than ever, television has made millions of armchair experts and a generation is in danger of being lost. I am heartily fed up of seeing games moved to midday on Saturday often at late notice with transport booked and paid for. Leeds have lost 5,000 supporters each game against Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday to satisfy TV viewing figures and it has to stop.

September Review

I made the rather bold prediction at the end of August that a not one club would occupy the same position at the end of September, I was wrong. However, only Birmingham City of the 24 teams stayed in their likely finishing position of 20th.

The accepted wisdom is that any league table takes shape after ten games or in this case eleven, but this notion can be skewed by the fixture list computer. That will   never stop trigger happy Chairman or Owners to reload, aim and fire. The latest casualty being the affable Dougie Freedman at Bolton who couldn’t reverse a long sequence of poor results and exited stage left.

Watford made an enforced change due to ill health bringing the number of changes at the top to five in two months, multiply that figure until May 2015 and all twenty four Managers/Coaches will have left for pastures new. I have not included multiple sackings and appointments that will occur at my own club, Leeds United.

The top six is no great surprise other than Charlton Athletic, unbeaten and mastering the art of one goal victories under the tutelage of Bob Peeters, not an ex-Greenwich cabbie but a former Belgian International who has brought several of his countrymen to South London with immediate success. The diet of chips, mayonnaise and strong lager appears to be doing the trick.

The money still swilling about at Norwich makes them my favourites for an automatic return to the Premiership and for charging £40 on a Tuesday night for the pleasure of travelling 400 miles I won’t be sad to see the back of them. However, pressure will be immense and Delia may require another alcohol fuelled rant to galvanise the expectant Canaries. Forest and Derby won’t thank me for mentioning them in the same sentence, but I find it difficult to separate them now with both likely play-off candidates playing a brand of attacking, entertaining football that Cloughie would be proud of ‘young man’.

Middlesbrough have impressed me this season, astute additions to an under achieving squad and the perennial backing from Steve Gibson suggests better times ahead for the Smoggies, sadly their home support hasn’t yet reflected that. Watford are Watford and their impressive home form at the intimidating Vicarage Road will ensure they remain in and around the top places.

Team of the month has to be Ipswich Town, wily old fox McCarthy has the Tractor Boys rumbling down the road being a nuisance to others. The loan market is now an essential tool for lower league Managers and ‘Big Mick’ clearly uses his contacts and nous very well. I doubt they can maintain that challenge, but keep Burnley in mind, not for long though because we all know they are coming back. Wolves and Sheffield Wednesday have begun encouragingly and both would bite your hand off at a comfortable mid-table finish with the occasional flirt with the play-off positions.

My other team deserving of praise and comment is Brentford, having seen my team spanked there a couple of weeks ago I expect many others will suffer the same fate. A small dilapidated ground, vocal home support and some very useful players eager to impress make Griffin Park a tough challenge. The move to a brand new, shiny stadium will bring its financial rewards but lose the intensity of an old school ground. Might pick up a few disillusioned Fulham fans I suppose.

Bournemouth, Blackburn, Reading and Leeds all might be a little disappointed with their points haul but find themselves only 6 points off top spot on Saturday evening.  The next couple of months usually see suspensions and injuries play some part and those with bigger squads have a slight advantage.

The bottom half of the Championship makes uncomfortable reading for Bolton, Blackpool and Fulham but Huddersfield’s renaissance under Chris Powell confirms a week is a long time in Football never mind Politics. Brighton are surprisingly hovering in the lower reaches and one of the best sides I’ve seen this season and won’t be there much longer I suspect.

Approaching a quarter of the season as Autumn arrives, who will be the next Club to shed the boss? Uwe Rosler has a demanding Chairman who will not want to see his Club falter for much longer, but I suspect will hold his nerve when others might not. Now we must all pause for a weekend for England to play San Marino – ridiculous!  A weekend wasted and replaced by supporters travelling thousands of miles in a cold, wet winter evening to fulfil the void.

Until the next time, good luck to all. I don’t really mean that but does any Football fan genuinely wish other sides to prosper?

 

David Goodwill

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2014/15: Sky Bet Championship Review – August 2014

The season is barely a month old and The Championship along with the Premier League has been halted by the obligatory and ludicrous ‘International Break’…

…And my credentials for voicing an opinion on such matters? For the record I have watched in excess of 1,500 games over thirty five years, the vast majority of this millennium at Championship level (or Division Two in old money), but also a brief sojourn in the third tier of English Football. My name is David Goodwill and I’m a Leeds United fan.

So to business.  As a rule, The Championship includes a host of teams fallen from the promised land of the Premier League, others trampling over each other to acquire the financial fruits promotion delivers, more happy to prevent the bigger and arrogant clubs from doing so and finally those desperate to avoid the apparent oblivion of League One.

The current season is three weeks and five games old and Messrs Robins, Hockaday and Sannino have departed and nobody is particularly surprised. Managers or Coaches are the equivalent of Mobile Phones, signed up on a two year contract but after six months you want an upgrade or replacement. The service provider or board usually succumb frightened of losing their patrons custom.

They say the table never lies; I disagree and will wager not one single club will be in the same position come May 2015. The Championship season is brutal, relentless, exhausting and for the vast majority disappointing to a greater and lesser degree. I would lose at least two clubs, four fixtures to reduce the volume of midweek games and the financial burden on the pocket of the watching spectator.

The returning messiah, Stuart Pearce has Forest aptly top of the tree despite pre-season disagreements with the hierarchy. The acquisition of multi-million pound players to an already heavily bank rolled side should see The Reds last the course and distance but possibly require a photo finish to make the winning enclosure. I will endeavour to mention each and every team on this early review and whilst not a fan of WWF I can’t deny that Wolves, Watford and Forest are the top three!

The Black Country side are proving that momentum is a huge force in any sport and one has to credit Kenny Jackett with waking, if not a sleeping giant, then a weary tall person. Sarf London is represented twice in the top six, both Millwall and Charlton under relatively new Management are putting the Blackwall Tunnel on the map for matters other than traffic delays – will it last? I don’t think so. Norwich make up the early play off positions and I doubt will leave them for the remainder of the campaign, the shrewd signing of Lewis Grabban finally providing the goals for a very talented squad.

Trying to remain objective and considered about other clubs is quite a challenge; I don’t really care for any team other than my own. On that note, I despise half scarves, applauding the opposition scoring and appreciating the referee has a “difficult” job to do. Football is meant to be one eyed, partisan, painful and ultimately end in misery and dejection for all but a few. Rant over and back to the task in hand.

The remainder of the top half reminds me of the geographical diversity of this League with Bournemouth, Wigan, Brentford and Cardiff representing the South, North, London and a foreign country respectively. All will have aspirations to remain there or thereabouts and the deeper pockets of Wigan and Cardiff should see they do well, but Burnley bucked the trend last season, so why not Bournemouth or Brentford? Imagine that Premier League fixture in 2015 – no neither can I, but they will take scalps up and down the country for sure. Derby and Sheffield Wednesday represent the plethora of sides in this division where history weighs heavy and success is craved to the point of desperation. McLaren has The Rams in the fast lane and few would begrudge The Owls to soar to the higher echelons – although once again I would.

Twelve down, twelve to go. Teams resting in the bottom half have proved before to be in a false position, Reading was one such case achieving promotion from a dire start in previous years and Brighton, Blackburn and Middlesbrough have all recruited well in my view and I expect to see them mount serious challenges as the season progresses. The ability to use the loan market is essential for these sides unable to compete financially with the parachute payments for clubs rewarded for failure.

The Yorkshire duo of Leeds and Rotherham hover above the bottom six, both with colourful characters at the helm. Who can forget the touch line dash of Steve Evans at Wembley? I for one have had nightmares ever since. His methods might be controversial, but his results are there for all to see and I expect The Millers to retain their Championship status. The last six weeks at Elland Road has seen players depart and arrive at a phenomenal rate and nobody knows where the journey will end, but most likely in disappointment, acrimony, tears and financial ruin…again.

The bottom six will have a fortnight to ruminate about their position, point fingers at colleagues and coaches reminding themselves it’s a marathon and not a sprint and use the next two weeks to reinvigorate themselves and their supporters for ‘act two’ of the long running Championship saga. Bolton, Fulham and Blackpool currently sit below the dreaded dotted line having drawn two and scored ten goals between them in fifteen games. The Tangerines require the football version of speed dating for players to introduce themselves to each other, chances are they are no match and early form supports that. Bolton look a million miles away from the side that slugged it out year on year with the big boys in the Premier League and Fulham have placed all their eggs in one Scottish basket, and who has yet to hatch.

Ipswich, Huddersfield and Birmingham have made inconsistent starts but come the end of September might all be singing the Blues! The reality of Championship life is most teams are capable of beating each other, winning when least expected and losing to relegation fodder for no apparent reason. I will enjoy my fortnight of inactivity, pretend that new acquisitions will catapult my team up the division and then bemoan the loss of former idols not fit to wear the shirt a matter of weeks ago.

 

David Goodwill

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2013/14: Sky Bet Championship – Sheffield Wednesday v Huddersfield Town

Will the real Sheffield Wednesday ‘stand-up’? That was the question Owls boss Dave Jones was facing after a 2-1 home defeat in the Yorkshire ‘derby’ against Huddersfield Town.

In their last game at Hillsborough, Wednesday were rampant winning 5-2 against promotion chasing Reading, but against the Terriers they were outplayed for the majority of the game. Jones stated, “we have a block when we play here, but if you start slaughtering the players you lose them and we need them to be big and brave.”

The Wednesday boss made four changes to his team from their last outing at Derby, but it made little difference.

One of those changes, keeper Damien Martinez was soon picking the ball out the net, when Huddersfield went ahead on eleven minutes. Adam Clayton was given too much time and space by the Owls defence and he picked out an unmarked Martin Paterson who finished coolly for his fiftieth league goal.

Paterson looked offside, but Town boss Mark Robins post-match stated he “hadn’t watched a replay” adding, “I don’t care – it was a good move and good finish”. His opposite number Dave Jones, view was that “the first goal might have been offside, but it doesn’t matter because we didn’t do our jobs properly”.

Jones looked to enliven his beleaguered side by introducing Jermaine Johnson and Giles Coke for Michail Antonio and Stephen McPhail at the start of the second-half.

However, it was the Terriers who should have scored just after the break, as a marauding run and shot from Paul Dixon fell for James Vaughan who somehow sliced his effort wide from twelve yards.

The home fans did have something to cheer though ten minutes into the second half, when Jermaine Johnson had his shot well saved by Town keeper Alex Smithies.

Indeed, after the game Terriers manager Mark Robins praised the Huddersfield stopper saying, “his concentration levels were fantastic. There was a small period of the game when we were peppered with shots and he had an answer for everything”.

Unfortunately for Wednesday, they couldn’t find an equaliser and it was Town who went further ahead on sixty eight minutes.

Following a corner, Oliver Norwood’s strike on goal was not cleared by the Wednesday defence, allowing Clayton to arrow his shot into the corner and put the visitors 2-0 ahead.

Even with twenty minutes remaining that pretty much sealed the points for Huddersfield, with a goal from a Connor Wickham free-kick three minutes into stoppage time, merely a consolation.

Unsurprisingly at the final whistle, Hillsborough echoed to boos from the Wednesday fans as this result left their team in the bottom three and with the unenviable record of being the only club in the country yet to have kept a clean sheet.

Terriers’ boss Mark Robins reflected that his team had been “outstanding for the first hour” but accepted the side was “still a work in progress”.

Dave Jones may not have the luxury of time but stated defiantly, “it’s up to everyone to turn this around, and that starts from the staff and through to all the players. We have all got to stand up and be counted”.

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