Shocks-a-plenty as leaders stumble and Plymouth resurgence continues

Over the last few sea­sons, the Cham­pi­onship has become one of the most unpre­dictable and com­pet­i­tive divi­sions in Euro­pean foot­ball. After a fairly unsur­pris­ing start to the cam­paign, that rep­u­ta­tion looked to be under threat but after a week in which the top three picked up just six points from a pos­si­ble 18, un-normality has been resumed.

The top three places are still filled by the three rel­e­gated Pre­mier League sides but the gap between sec­ond placed West Brom and eleventh placed Coven­try is now just five points.

West Brom had enjoyed a fine start to the sea­son and found them­selves in top spot after a 5–0 win over Mid­dles­brough but suc­ces­sive defeats to Crys­tal Palace and Barns­ley and a draw on Sat­ur­day with Pre­ston, have put the skids on their cam­paign. Bag­gies boss Roberto Di Mat­teo thinks that sup­port­ers may have to be a lit­tle more real­is­tic about their expectations.

“We had a bad week, which is a long time in foot­ball, but we are still OK.” said Di Mat­teo after the Pre­ston match.

“Maybe the good start we had at the begin­ning of the sea­son gave the pub­lic a dif­fer­ent level of expectation.

“We know how hard it is to win.”

Three points clear at the top of the Cham­pi­onship league table are New­cas­tle United but like West Brom, they are cur­rently expe­ri­enc­ing a blip; two points the sum total of home matches with QPR and Bris­tol City. Off pitch insta­bil­ity will do noth­ing to aid the Mag­pies pro­mo­tion chal­lenge and fans will be hop­ing that reports about an impend­ing takeover are proved to be correct.

At the other end of the table there was wel­come relief for Ply­mouth boss Paul Stur­rock, who had appeared to be on the verge of the sack, before two wins in a week pro­vided a much needed shot in the arm for the Argyle faithful.

Momen­tum is cru­cial in any divi­sion and Stur­rock believes that it played a part dur­ing his side’s see-saw 2–1 win against Scunthorpe.

“The thing about foot­ball is that win­ning becomes as much of a habit as los­ing.” he said.

“The win in the week has buoyed the boys. Before if they had got pegged back they would have let it affect them.

“Today they have gone straight up the other end and got a goal back, which turned out to be the winner.”

Ply­mouth now sit in 22^nd spot, two points behind Read­ing and three ahead of bot­tom of the table Ipswich, who are still await­ing their first vic­tory of the sea­son after a last gasp 2–1 defeat to Barnsley.