This week there were plenty of exciting games in the Championship, where the momentum and score moved in favour of both sides throughout the match, these games climaxed to leave one set of fans exhilarated and ecstatic and the other set  drained and deflated.

Reading and Norwich traded blows to draw 3 – 3, whilst  Burnley overcame Watford in a thrilling in a game where the lead changed hands 3 times. However the game this week that left pulses racing featured a club that is no stranger to the ups and downs of football, Portsmouth FC.

Portsmouth’s opponents at Fratton Park where Doncaster Rovers and before the game  both sides occupied mid table positions meaning that victory would move the victor right back into playoff contention.

Despite a bright start from the home side, it was Doncaster who took the lead via James Hayter after just 15 minutes., Rovers then extended this lead via James Coppinger after 26 minutest to silence the Fratton Park crowd.

This was the state of play until half time and it looked as though it was going to be a frustrating afternoon for Pompey as the score remained the same at the hour mark, however on the 66th minute  Joel Ward converted a John Utaka cross to pull a goal back and put Portsmouth back in the game.

The momentum was now with the home side, and it took just 8  minutes for this pressure to lead to parity as a Neil Sullivan fumble  allowed David Nugent to score his fourth of the season and send the traditionally partisan Portsmouth crowd wild.

The Portsmouth fans must have felt that at that moment the tide of the game was with them and that they could go onto win the game in the final stages of the match, yet this dream lasted just four minutes as journeyman striker David Healy thundered home a 20 yard drive to regain the lead for Doncaster with just over ten minutes of normal time to play.

Portsmouth were unable to breakthrough for a third goal and equaliser and as seems to be the case quite frequently  at Fratton Park these days, a bad situation got worse as Carl Dickinson was sent off in the 88^th minute for a vicious challenge on James Hayter.

All in all this was a fascinating game of football, with both sides seeming to squander any momentum gained as the match wore on. The sending off was a sour notebut this game will be remembered for the Portsmouth comeback and finishing of David Healy which so cruelly denied them a point.  This was a great result for Doncaster who will go into their next game with confidence that they can react positively in any cirumstance.

Recently relegated Portsmouth’s troubles are not over.  Far from it.  They may have just begun.  As someone who has followed the whole sordid affair since the first signs of trouble in the summer of 2008, I can tell you it’s difficult to type that sentence.  The fire sale that began with Sulley Muntari in July of 2008 has not stopped.

The starting eleven from the 2009-10 season opener versus Fulham consisted of the following:  James, Distin, Kaboul, Belhadj, Kranjcar, Mullins, Wilson, Diop, Mokoena, Utaka, and Piquionne.  Kanu and Nugent came on as subs.  Of those players the following are gone:  James, Distin, Kaboul, Belhadj, Kranjcar, Diop, and Piquionne.  Mullins and Wilson say they would be happy to stay, but with other clubs rumored to want them, and Pompey in need of cash, they probably won’t be around much longer.  Mokoena has said he wants out, but is not exactly in high demand.  Utaka could stay, but is expensive.  Kanu and Nugent both traveled with the club for their North American tour.  Nugent would like to stay, and probably will.  Kanu, however, is out of contract, is asking for too much money, and the best guess of his age is late 30s.  The starting eleven for the FA Cup final was very different than the start of the season.  The only men to feature in both starting lineups were James, Mokoena, Diop, Piquionne, and Mullins.  Of those five players, only two could possibly play on August 7th for the opening of the Championship season.  It’s possible that none of them will play.

Now the depressing part:  Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has appealed the Company Voluntary Agreement which keeps Portsmouth FC in administration until the hearing.  The hearing has been expedited, but until that hearing is resolved, new ownership cannot take charge and do anything to strengthen the squad.  While there are rumors of ownership interest, Pompey supporters have heard too many rumors over the two years to listen to any of them.  The club has been allowed to sign a few players because every club has to have 20 players under contract to start the season.  No one has delusions that this club will get off to anything resembling a good start.  If the hearing does not occur before August 7th, and it is not currently scheduled but they have promised to expedite it, then the club will most likely start the season with a points deduction as much as 17 points.

While the team has not embarrassed themselves on their North American tour, it is obvious that they will struggle.  They lost to Club America 2-1 after taking 42 hours to get from Portsmouth to San Diego.  They then beat the Ventura County Fusion 2-1 and Edmonton FC on penalty kicks to claim a trophy.  Both of those clubs would be the equivalent of Havant & Waterlooville, another club they beat 2-1 before leaving for San Diego.  They play MLS bottom side DC United on Saturday evening at RFK stadium in the nation’s capital.

The club needs some positive news.  Bringing in a few players will help new manager Steve Cotterill add some fresh blood and convince everyone they have a chance of avoiding relegation.  I don’t envy him that task.

Several teams have managed to put together some pretty decent runs in the Championship this season. All of them, though, are susceptible to poor form and bad results. This is partly because this is a tight league with little difference between top and bottom – especially compared with the Premier League – but also because few teams have the resources to really cope with injuries or suspensions.

Newcastle apart, it’s Queens Park Rangers who have probably received the most praise and media coverage over the last couple of months. Goals have been flying in from all angles, Derby were humiliated on terrestrial television and the passing style insisted upon by Jim Magilton has led to the club being dubbed ‘The Arsenal of the Championship’ on more than one occasion.

QPR, though, have problems. First of all they failed to find much flow against Leicester live on Sky and their winning run came to an abrupt end. A few days later they were denied again by a hard working Palace side who held them to a 1-1 draw. Even Rangers’ recent victory at Sheffield Wednesday needed a late winner to patch over a lack of fluency.

The cliche is that the top teams win even when they are playing badly, so in that respect the win at Hillsborough was an encouraging sign. Yet despite the individual brilliance of Akos Buzsaky, Adel Taraabt amd Wayne Routledge, QPR fans harbour concerns about how far their team can go this season.

The reason for this is The Captain Curse. Five separate players have already led the team out this season. Four of those players are currently injured. If Mikele Leigertwood was to be crocked in training this week, the chances are a sixth name would be added to that list. It’s only November!

Rangers are currently chronically low on genuine leadership. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of endeavour. Defender Peter Ramage has a tremendous attitude. Wayne Routledge’s work ethic is outstanding for such a creative footballer. Jay Simpson is a tireless worker up front. But it feels like a quiet dressing room. Teams going for promotion need defiance, they need players in the team that will drive them forward when the going is tough. Sometimes, just playing great football isn’t quite enough.

It all started when poor Martin Rowlands suffered a second cruciate injury in a year while playing in a friendly for the Republic of Ireland, ruling him out for the rest of the season. It was a cruel blow for the QPR captain and also for the team because his energy, his drive and his snappy tackling add an extra dimension to the squad. Gavin Mahon took over the armband and the matchday programme notes as Rowlands prepared for a season watching from the sidelines. Mahon will have been with the club for two years in January and during that time he never missed a game through injury – until about a fortnight ago. He’s now out for four months following knee surgery. While not always a first team regular, Mahon is nevertheless a real leader and was captain of Watford the last time they paid a brief visit to the Premier League.

With defender Fitz Hall seemingly unable to put together a run of games in a QPR shirt without suffering injury, Rangers are certainly lacking a genuine captain. The possible signing on a permanent deal of current loan player Ben Watson in January would help (not least because QPR’s central midfield is now looking a bit thin), but ideally Rangers probably need something extra.

If the club is still in the top six after Christmas, it seems likely that Jim Magilton will be asking Chairman Flavio Briatore for a little more investment (Russell Martin of Peterborough is one name that has already been rumoured in the press). A couple of wise additions in January may well be enough to push Rangers over the line and back into the top flight for the first time in 14 years… unless The Captain Curse continues to strike down QPR’s leaders.

It’s difficult to argue too much with Newcastle’s recent decision to appoint Chris Hughton as their permanent manager. After all, Newcastle are two points clear at the top of the table, averaging two points per game and are undefeated at home.

Can Chris Hughton give The Toon what they want?

Yet if I was a Newcastle fan I would have deep concerns about the decision. When Middlesbrough finally took the plunge and ditched the clearly struggling Gareth Southgate, they did not mess about. They appointed Gordon Strachan, a man with genuine experience and a history of success. He has won Championships. He even took Southampton to an FA Cup Final.

Newcastle, meanwhile, appointed Chris Hughton, who has never taken sole charge of a team until this season. I’m not sure how much debate this caused in Geordieland, but whatever discussion it may have generated has surely been totally engulfed by the latest embarrassment to crawl out of a once proud club. When Newcastle take on Peterborough this weekend, you may have read, the two teams will no longer be running out into the historic cauldron of football known as St James’ Park. They’ll be running out into something called ‘sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park’.

Without a doubt, the stupidest, nonsensical and downright insulting renaming of a football ground in history.

But let’s get back to my point. The Championship is now beginning to settle down and while Newcastle still lead the pack, only an extremely blinkered fan would suggest they are certainties for promotion. By all accounts their victory against Sheffield United this week was rather fortunate, as was their draw with QPR and their narrow victory over lowly Doncaster.

At the moment, the quality that United have in the likes of Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez and Steven Taylor is seeing them through. They do have good options up front, but this season will only get tougher as Championship sides figure out ways to counteract their play.

While things are going well Hughton may be able to keep a steady hand on the tiller. But when they hit their inevitable sticky patch, does Hughton really have the nous, the personality or the experience to drag his team through it?

Last season, Birmingham City pretty much achieved promotion through an edge in quality and the bloody-mindedness of manager Alex McLeish. They were never particularly impressive, certainly never as effective as Wolves, but they grabbed the points when it mattered. As the winter months draw in, will Hughton be able to withstand the pressure of expectation?

True, Newcastle are top, but just six points separate 1st place from 10th position (in contrast, eight points separate first from fourth in the Premier League). It is a tiny gap that could easily be breached in a matter of weeks. Several clubs are beginning to find their stride as well. QPR have been looking like an awesome attacking force. Leicester City are incredibly difficult to beat and have genuine quality up front. Cardiff have enough firepower to defeat anybody. West Brom just put five past Watford. Even Swansea are improving at a frightening rate under Paulo Sousa after a difficult start.

Can you imagine how these teams would have felt if Newcastle had chosen Strachan or Alan Curbishley or if they’d managed to tempt someone like Claudio Ranieri? Appointing career number twos very rarely works – something Sunderland found with Ricky Sbragia. You have to be more than a good coach.

Cardiff fans know only too well that a quick start in this league can mean very little come the end of the season. Newcastle may regret their inability to appoint a stronger, proven manager – or even a talismanic figure like Alan Shearer – when next May comes around. If we’re honest the appointment of Hughton would have been unthinkable even six months ago, and that’s no disrespect to a man who is undoubtedly a good coach and a genuine football man.

These days, very little at sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park surprises anyone anymore. Good luck to Chris Hughton – he’s going to need it.

Can Kevin Blackwell turn around United's fortunes?

It is probably against all the rules of a blog to direct the reader away in the first paragraph, but I think it’s worth it. Before you read this little ramble, have a listen to the BBC interview with Kevin Blackwell, conducted after Sheffield United’s 3-0 defeat at Blackpool a week ago last Saturday.

Fun, isn’t it? To my mind, that is an interview every bit as shocking and, let’s be honest, amusing as Kevin Keegan’s famous ‘I’d love it’ moment or Rafa Benitez’s accusations aimed at Manchester United last season. As it’s in the Championship, though, the media seemed to have largely ignored it.

To me, that sounds like a manager in meltdown. Poor Seth, the journalist, asks a pretty valid question: “Do you still feel the spirit is strong?” United, who came third last season and possessed an incredibly mean defence, had just lost 3-0 at Blackpool. Moreover, it followed a defeat at Scunthorpe, a last-gasp draw at home to winless Ipswich, a failure to defeat Doncaster and a loss at Swansea. After Saturday’s 4-3 home defeat to Cardiff, the Blades have failed to keep a clean sheet since September 12th and have conceded a rotten 21 goals in their last eight games. If anything, Seth was being kind in his phraseology.

Blackwell, however, did not see it that way at all. Seth’s question provoked a response so defensive and so visceral that you cannot help but assume the journalist had touched a very raw nerve indeed. Blackwell proceeds to spend three minutes desperately reaching for excuses. Injuries come high up the list, but excuses about injuries rarely wash – all clubs face the same problem.

Apart from injuries, though, Blackwell insists: “That’s life… It just happens… It’s just not happening for us… Things aren’t dropping for us at the moment.” Essentially, he seems to be suggesting that it’s just bad luck. But when even that doesn’t seem to convince anyone, he resorts to insulting the journalist who is calmly trying to do his job: “That’s a stupid question,” he retorts. “Come on, don’t be stupid,” he argues. “That’s rubbish, Seth,” he falters. But what has Seth said? Seth’s question is perfectly valid. It is Blackwell’s retorts that stink of refuse and panic.

Perhaps this is all a result of a bit of deja vu for the United manager. Back in 2006, he took Leeds all the way to a play-off final, one win away from the Premier League. That season he never spurned an opportunity to bemoan how little he had to spend on his team (usually just before spending over a million on Rob Hulse or Richard Cresswell) but clearly Leeds had better resources than most at that time. Following a transparent attempt to position Leeds as the underdogs against Watford in the final, Blackwell was tactically destroyed by Aidy Boothroyd as the Hornets won 3-0. Leeds’ descent the following season was rapid and they finished bottom.

I wonder if that season is now rattling around his brain once more. Only that injury time equaliser against Ipswich stops it from looking like a fully-fledged crisis.

Blackwell is keen to blame injuries, new players and a lack of fit midfielders. Yet this is a side that on Saturday included Matt Kilgallon, Chris Morgan, James Harper, Glen Little, Stephen Quinn, Kyle Walker and £3m-worth of Ched Evans. Henri Camara was only on the bench. Can a manager who can field those players in this league really be moaning about injuries?

Whichever way you look at it this is a dire run and the Blades’ defence, the rock on which their season was built last season, appears to be crumbling.  Blackwell’s outburst against an honest, local journalist after a poor result only serves to highlight the pressure the manager is feeling. Perhaps the Blades’ next game, at home to Newcastle on Monday, will galvanise the crowd and shake the team up. Blackwell will hope so, because many more defeats and goals conceded and he might find himself on nodding terms with Gareth Southgate in the dole queue.

Newcastle and Middlesbrough entered the Championship from the wrong direction yet still boasted two of the most talented squads in the history of the division. With Newcastle’s off-field dramas threatening to do serious damage, many expected Middlesbrough, with their more settled structure, to prosper.

Can Southgate deliver promotion?

Newcastle were always likely to lose the likes of Owen and Duff, but with Ameobi hitting the kind of form he hasn’t found for years and the transfer deadline approaching without the departure of Nolan or Taylor, they may have ridden one storm even without a permanent manager. They play Leicester on Monday and few would bet against a home win and a return to the top of the table for the Barcodes.

Things appear pretty rosy for Boro too.

Two away wins, third in the table, Adam Johnson one of the stand-out stars of the league so far and until Nicky Maynard’s double at the weekend, they were yet to concede a league goal.

But watching Gareth Southgate’s flustered post-match interview on the BBC’s refreshingly enjoyable Football League programme, you have to wonder if trouble is lurking around the corner already for the beleagured Boro boss.

This week he lost Tuncay and, perhaps more pertinently, Robert Huth to Stoke. Immediately, Boro’s clean white league sheets were dirtied by Bristol City. Southgate, himself once a first class centre back, must have been fuming with the direct nature of Nicky Maynard’s late winner. Even Maynard himself looked surprised by the freedom the Boro defence offered.

Of course, this may just be a blip and Boro are not the first team and won’t be the last to be undone by the in-form Maynard this season. But let’s take a closer look at Boro’s results so far. Against Sheffield United on the opening evening they were largely lacklustre, although it must be said that the Blades are masters of defending away from home: last season they shipped just 17 in 23. Nevertheless, Boro fans would have been worried by their almost total lack of threat that evening.

Next came two comfortable away wins, the first against a Swansea side struggling to come to terms with the loss of their brilliant manager and a number of key players, and the second against Scunthorpe, a League One side just a few months ago. In short, the results were good, but Boro would have expected to take six points from those games.

A 2-0 home win against Doncaster was also fine but again, with all respect to Donny, the odds on 2-0 would have been rather short and with the quality and resources Boro have, all three of those wins should have been achieved whoever was in charge. Since then, they’ve been knocked out of the Cup by Forest and beaten in their first serious test since their game with Sheffield United.

I’m a big believer that tables mean nothing until at least 10 games in. By that time, all clubs have had a chance to play a variety of teams from up and down the table. Boro’s position bears that belief out. Even though they are third, their only really impressive result was away at Swansea, a team clearly at the start of a major transition.

As Southgate struggled to contain his fury on Saturday he almost looked disturbed by the number of microphones shoved under his chin. He may have the most supportive Chairman in the country in his corner, but he is still under enormous pressure. If he thought the spotlight would be a little dimmer in the Championship, Saturday’s defeat will have set him right.

When the league resumes after the bothersome international break, Boro face a slowly improving Ipswich, the unpredictably dangerous Sheffield Wednesday and the impressive West Brom within a single week. After those three games we should have a clearer picture of Southgate’s ability to keep Boro in that top three – and of the likelihood of him lasting the season at the Riverside.

Less than two weeks to go until the new Championship season. Squads are coming together. Some managers are content, others are panicking. Fans are enjoying a final fortnight of optimism before reality sets in.

Can Billy Davies take Forest to the top?

With this in mind, here are five random predictions for the coming season, hung on a flimsy animal theme:

Dark Horses: Nottingham Forest

When Billy Davies took over in January, Forest looked likely to go down. In fact, even with a few weeks of the season left they were still teetering, but now they mean business.

Billy Davies has brought in Lee Camp, Dexter Blackstock, Dele Adebola, Paul McKenna, David McGoldrick, Chris Gunter and Joel Lynch. It’s reminiscent of Davies’ last full season at Derby, where he transformed a team of strugglers into promotion material in just 12 months. I’m not saying they’ll win the league, but with all their attacking options and a proven manager, this could be an enjoyable season for the Tricky Trees. Prediction: 5th.

Stinking Skunks: Newcastle United

You can see what I did here: skunks are black and white and so is Newcastle’s kit… well, the one that doesn’t contain shades of urine-yellow, anyway.

Newcastle are in serious trouble. They looked bereft of desire last season after Keegan left and this year they won’t even have the excitement of playing against Manchester United or Fulham.

Currently, they have no manager. Their owner is desperate to sell, but no one really fancies buying them for the asking price. Their squad holds enough quality to win this league with some ease, but it’s a club with more than a whiff of Leeds about it. Every game they play will be against a team desperate to knock over the largest team in the division. Every team will get a big gate against Newcastle. Fans will back their underdogs all the way. I just can’t see, at the moment, how Newcastle will be able to cope.

New owners, a strong manager and a bit of stability could change all that. After all, Sunderland were flailing around like a flock of drowning giraffe a couple of years back until Roy Keane dragged them from bottom to top. But at the moment, 23 clubs are rubbing their hands at the prospect of playing the Magpies. Prediction: 14th.

Irritating Wasps: Peterborough United

Peterborough are at the other end of the scale to Newcastle. They have a much-coveted manager. After years of worrying if they have enough money to pay for the floodlights on evening games, they are now financially stable. They have just been promoted. The club is possibly in its best shape ever.

The problem is that despite these positives, every fan of every club will look at Peterborough and say: “We have to be beating teams like this.” Peterborough are still a small club, but they possess a genuine sting and players, especially of the larger teams, are going to feel pressure to swat them aside. I can’t see that happening. They have a winning mentality and that will continue, at least for this season. Prediction: 9th.

Suicidal Lemmings: Coventry City

What is going on here? The rumour is that Cov are selling off their players so that they can buy their cavernous stadium that can make a tremendous noise when full, but echoes horribly the rest of the time. Two of their best performers last season, Scott Dann and Daniel Fox, have both gone. Michael Mifsud has been released along with Leon McKenzie. It’s not even as if they were much of a force last season and with the Championship now spitting out former Premier League clubs on an annual basis, I fear the same fate could be about to befall poor Cov. Prediction: 22nd.

Harmless Pussycats: Reading

That 100 point+ season now seems a long time ago. The player turnover since then makes alarming reading: Leroy Lita, Dave Kitson, Graeme Murty, Kevin Doyle, Marcus Hahnemann, Nicky Shorey, Steve Coppell… They still have the Hunt brothers and Shane Long, but this season smells like transition to me.

Clubs who lose long serving managers often seem to struggle for a while afterwards as the club creakily adapts to a new regime (just look at Charlton) and although Brendan Rogers has a fine reputation in the game, he’s still inexperienced and is now charged with re-building a Reading force.

The Royals were poor for much of the second half of last season, their vaunted attacking force failing to score in 50% of their last dozen games. Royals fans are going to need to show some patience. Prediction: 13th.

How much time will Jim Magilton be given at QPR?

Of the 24 teams that kicked off the Championship just under a year ago, eleven now have new managers. In the majority of cases, the manager was removed due to perceived failings. Being a Championship manager is like being a duck at a shooting gallery. It’s a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’, no matter how dumb the man holding the gun might be.

It’s a truism, but it all comes down to expectations. Two teams can be promoted automatically, another four can reach the play-offs. Yet by my reckoning seven clubs will expect to finish first or second and nine others will believe they can make the play-offs.

With kick-off still a few weeks away, two-thirds of the managers in this league are now giving optimistic interviews about challenging for the top six. Disappointment for most of them is therefore inevitable. And disappointment leads to jobless managers.

Here’s my top five managers most at risk as teams start their pre-season preparations:

1. Jim Magilton, QPR: The Rangers owners can dress it up any way they like, but the turnover of managers (or head coaches) at the club since Flavio Briatore arrived has been startling even by the bizarre standards football sets itself. QPR have now turned to Jim Magilton, deemed not good enough for Ipswich only a few weeks before his appointment at Loftus Road.

A spat with the Chairman or a poor start to the season could easily see Magilton disappear from his post within a matter of months.  He has to be the favourite to go first.

2. Malky Mackay, Watford: Another new manager who could potentially be at risk early in the season. Watford seem destined to lose talisman Tommy Smith to Sheffield United, and even though the surprisingly high £1.8m fee will be welcome, his departure will be a real blow.

Watford are now a far cry from Boothroyd’s big, dangerous side of a a few years back and if they start badly the club may decide to cut their losses and, against recent practice, opt for a more experienced hand.

3. Gareth Southgate, Middlesbrough: If Southgate had been in charge of any other established Premier League club and turned in the results he did last season, he would be out of a job.  Famously, he belittled Sven Goran Eriksson after England’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Brazil in 2002, claiming that the team needed Winston Churchill at half time, not Iain Duncan Smith.

I wonder if he recalled those words when his team lost 3-0 to rock bottom West Brom, 4-1 to Bolton or 5-0 at home to Chelsea. The management game, he must now realise, is more than spouting a bit of loud rhetoric at half time.

Steve Gibson always backs his managers but if Boro fall towards mid-table (or worse, as Sunderland did a couple of years back), Gibson may have no other option than to advise Southgate to go back to the pizza commercials.

4. Roberto di Matteo, West Brom: This was truly an appointment out of the left-field. It was as if the West Brom board were so flush from receiving £2m from Celtic for a manager that had just relegated their club, that, like a gambler who believes he’s on a roll, they decided to bet high on a pair of deuces. I mean, the Albion job is a big job these days.

Di Matteo did well at MK Dons, but in truth he was managing a team already built by Paul Ince and one that had a significant financial advantage over most clubs in League One.

It’s a brave decision, but West Brom fans are used to yo-yoing. They’ve had their spin down and now they will be expecting the corresponding spin up. Di Matteo is under significant pressure.

5. Chris Coleman, Coventry: As with the Premier League, there will always be one surprise who’ll go early. I’ll plump for Coleman. He has had time to consolidate at Cov and the board will be expecting something much greater than last season’s finish of 17th.

Only four teams won less home games than Coventry last season and Cookie must somehow find a way to turn that cavernous stadium into an intimidating place to visit.

Now it’s over to you. Who do you think will be first to go? Maybe Shearer won’t be able to take the heat? Or perhaps Gary Johnson will be poached by the Premier League. Let us know below.

Things at the Riverside Stadium were always going to be overshadowed somewhat by events further north at St James Park. While the Toon are still figuring out who is going to be in charge at the start of next season Gareth Southgate has quietly gone about his business.

Life for a newly relegated club will never be easy, no matter what division you are in, and clearly there will be a number of departures from Teeside before the Boro squad for next season is sorted. Southgate will have known this and will be frantically trying to keep some of the top, young English talent Boro are in the midst of producing.

One player who sticks out in that category is David Wheater, a central defender who has attracted a lot of admirers through his displays in a Middlesbrough shirt. The 22-year-old no-nonsense centre back has been linked with Aston Villa, but has yet to pledge his future to anyone. Wheater is the kind of player Southgate will need to keep hold of for the forthcoming struggle.

Matthew Bates is another player who Southgate will be glad stuck around and in signing a new contract has shown some of the commitment that Middlesbrough perhaps lacked last season. Too many of their players drifted through games without a care in the world. Those are the types of players who Boro don’t want in their side next season, despite that extra bit of quality they may possess.

Southgate needs to go back to home grown talent, be it from the Teeside area or from Great Britain in general. Looking at the sides that came up last season a lot of their star players were home grown boys. Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake stared for Wolves while Chris Eagles and Clarke Carlisle were pivotal in Burnley’s success.

Southgate has already taken a risk on young talent in the Premier League, a gamble which never really worked out for the former England international. However, the gulf in class between the Premier League and the Championship is still huge. The likes of Andrew Taylor, Adam Johnson and Tony McMahon will look much better players in the second tier of English football.

What Southgate needs now is some experience to bring the youngsters together, and I feel sure he knows that. It is still only June and a lot will change before the big kick-off on August 8. Yet looking at the three sides who came down I feel if Southgate can get the balance right, despite having not managed in the Championship before, his Boro side may finally steal the headlines in the north-east.

Newcastle United yesterday unveiled their new away football kit for the 2009-10 Championship season. In what can only be described as a truly awful effort – arguably one of the worst football shirts of the 21st century – it is yet another example of how the club just seem to manage to get things so wrong.

The only thing consistent about Newcastle United is their ability to mess things up on a grand scale. The two-toned yellow jersey may appeal to a small minority, but the reality is it is yet another reason for the football world in general to laugh at Newcastle United.

Relegation to the Championship, confusion over the future of manager Alan Shearer and a number of “stars” on ridiculously high wages (even for the Premiership) means a summary of misery for the Toon Army and a very difficult route back to the Barclays Premier League.

The departure of the club of Michael Owen on Monday told a story in itself. Signed in a blaze of glory from Real Madrid by Freddy Shepherd, Owen left St James Park with barely a whimper – which ironically summed up his participation in a Newcastle shirt.

Long gone are the days when Newcastle were the most exciting team in England, thrilling fans throughout the country with top stars like Shearer, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla.

The current team is a far cry from the great team built by Kevin Keegan and Philippe Albert’s exsquisite chip over Peter Schmeichel to put Newcastle 5-0 up against the Champions seems a lifetime to go.

Nobody would love to see Newcastle turn it around more than me – I was a huge fan of Keegan’s side and consider Newcastle one of my favourite clubs in the English league. However, the reality is for Newcastle to bounce back, it’s going to take a change much bigger than on the football pitch itself.

The whole club is a joke and needs an overhaul from top to bottom. Summed up by chairman Mike Ashley swanning about in a replica kit drinking a beer in the stand, Newcastle United lack professionalism and failure to change this image drastically and urgently could very well lead to much bigger problems for the club than relegation to the Championship.

Leeds United are an example of just how far a club can fall from grace – lets hope Newcastle don’t suffer the same fate.

Written by Danny Watson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football news.