Do you guys have any soft-spot teams in Championship, Div One or Div 2? Have a particular team you want to see get promoted or relegated? Or just want to talk about the higher levels of non-Prems English football? Post it here!
I'll get the ball rolling with some stats from RSSSF and my take:
CHAMPIONSHIP 1.Derby County 39 22 7 10 54-39 73
2.Birmingham City 38 21 8 9 55-35 71
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3.Sunderland 39 21 7 11 60-39 70
4.Preston North End 38 20 8 10 56-41 68
5.Wolverhampton Wanderers 39 19 9 11 45-41 66
6.West Bromwich Albion 39 18 10 11 66-46 64
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7.Cardiff City 39 17 12 10 54-42 63
8.Southampton 39 16 12 11 61-48 60
9.Stoke City 39 15 13 11 47-33 58
10.Colchester United 39 16 8 15 57-48 56
11.Crystal Palace 39 15 10 14 48-43 55
12.Sheffield Wednesday 39 14 11 14 58-59 53
13.Plymouth Argyle 38 12 16 10 51-50 52
14.Coventry City 39 15 7 17 43-49 52
15.Norwich City 38 14 8 16 48-56 50
16.Ipswich Town 39 14 6 19 49-52 48
17.Leicester City 38 11 13 14 41-48 46
18.Burnley 37 10 11 16 36-41 41
19.Hull City 39 11 8 20 41-58 41
20.Barnsley 39 12 5 22 45-69 41
21.Queens Park Rangers 38 10 10 18 45-59 40
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22.Southend United 39 9 12 18 40-59 39
23.Luton Town 39 9 9 21 47-67 36
24.Leeds United 39 10 6 23 39-64 36
- It seems Birmingham and Derby are the favourites for the auto-spots, but it's a tight pack on top. Everyone all the way down to seventh-place Cardiff has a chance, IMO.
- Although I don't think their chances of auto-promotion are that great, Southampton and Stoke have decent playoff chances. Colchester, Palace and Wednesday have a chance, too, but they're fading fast.
- a bit of a log jam at the bottom. I hope QPR passes Barnsley and stays up, not so much because of Marc Bircham (Canadian national team guy) but because I HATE Barnsley. On another note, if Burnley makes the most of their two games in hand, they could be out of trouble in no time. I kinda feel bad for Leeds.
- seems the only team with Canadians on it that is doing any good is Derby! Paul Peschisolido is something of a fan favourite in Ramsville.
Although he's usually confined to the role of substitute, the Rams' site says, "when they need to nick a goal out of somewhere, he's usually the man to do it." Ipswich, QPR, Leicester, and Sheff W, on the other hand, are kinda bad. (The Sheff W guy plays for the U18 side)
DIVISION ONE 1.S****horpe United 38 21 12 5 59-28 75
2.Bristol City 38 21 8 9 53-34 71
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3.Nottingham Forest 38 19 10 9 50-35 67
4.Yeovil Town 38 18 10 10 48-34 64
5.Oldham Athletic 38 18 9 11 60-38 63
6.Blackpool 37 16 11 10 51-38 59
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7.Tranmere Rovers 38 16 11 11 48-39 59
8.Swansea City 38 16 10 12 55-40 58
9.Doncaster Rovers 38 14 12 12 42-39 54
10.Carlisle United 38 14 11 13 39-46 53
11.Millwall 38 15 7 16 47-51 52
12.Port Vale 38 15 5 18 50-50 50
13.Crewe Alexandra 38 14 7 17 57-62 49
14.Huddersfield Town 38 12 13 13 49-58 49
15.Northampton Town 38 12 12 14 38-39 48
16.Brighton & Hove Albion 38 13 9 16 43-48 48
17.Leyton Orient 38 11 13 14 52-62 46
18.Gillingham 38 13 7 18 46-63 46
19.AFC Bournemouth 38 11 10 17 40-52 43
20.Bradford City 38 10 11 17 41-51 41
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21.Cheltenham Town 38 11 7 20 37-52 40
22.Chesterfield 38 10 9 19 39-47 39
23.Brentford 38 7 12 19 29-57 33
24.Rotherham United 37 11 8 18 50-60 31
- does anyone know what's up with Rotherham? Because they were docked ten for "financial problems."
- S****horpe looks to be running away with this league. Bristol City may have second looking locked down, but they still have three teams that could easily overtake them down the stretch.
- that sixth position in the tables is going to be hard as hell to lock down. In all fairness, Blackpool does have a game in hand on Tranmere, but look at the logjam right there. It's going to make for some exciting stretch-run football! GOD I wish I lived in England
- Rotherham would still be in the red even without the 10-point deduction, but they'd have a far better chance of getting out of it. I could see Bradford, Bournemouth, Chesterfield and Cheltenham really having a good go at each other to stay in Div One. Brentford's chances are fading fast, and despite having five more points than Rotherham, they have the worst record in Division One. Seven wins just ain't gon' cut it!
- there's only one Canadian in the entire division, that being Yeovil's D/M Gavin McCallum, who's spent the season on loan to Tamworth and later Crawley. So he's not much of a factor in Yeovil's success.
DIVISION TWO 1.Hartlepool United 38 22 9 7 54-33 75
2.Walsall 38 20 12 6 55-27 72
3.Milton Keynes Dons 38 21 7 10 65-51 70
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4.Lincoln City 38 20 7 11 65-50 67
5.Swindon Town 37 20 7 10 47-32 67
6.Stockport County 38 19 6 13 55-42 63
7.Wycombe Wanderers 37 16 10 11 43-32 58
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8.Darlington 38 15 12 11 45-41 57
9.Shrewsbury Town 35 13 14 8 54-35 53
10.Peterborough United 38 15 7 16 53-50 52
11.Bristol Rovers 37 14 10 13 40-39 52
12.Grimsby Town 38 15 5 18 45-60 50
13.Mansfield Town 38 13 10 15 53-52 49
14.Hereford United 38 13 10 15 42-46 49
15.Notts County 38 12 12 14 46-48 48
16.Chester City 38 12 11 15 36-38 47
17.Rochdale 36 12 10 14 48-39 46
18.Barnet 38 12 10 16 45-57 46
19.Bury 37 10 9 18 40-54 39
20.Accrington Stanley 38 9 11 18 54-67 38
21.Macclesfield Town 38 9 11 18 45-62 38
22.Boston United 38 10 8 20 44-69 38
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23.Wrexham 37 8 11 18 34-60 35
24.Torquay United 38 6 11 21 31-55 29
- it's way closer at the top here than it is in Division One, although probably not as close as in Championship. Good to see Milton Keynes finally on the rebound. From the looks of this they're one of 4 legit title contenders atm, although one still can't really tell with 10 or so games left.
- I'm happy to see Walsall doing so well, mostly because it's where my great-grandmother was born and raised, maybe in small part because of their acquisition of Canadian D/M Geordie Lyall from the Vancouver Whitecaps (the closest thing to a "big local club" I have at this point).
- Torquay have gotten third-string Lincoln G Simon Rayner (another Canook) on loan in desperation, trying to turn their p*ss-poor season around. They also have M Michal Misiewicz (yet another Canadian) in their U18 squad. A lot of good it's doing them lol.
- looks like quite the logjam at the bottom, but it's pretty defined - Rochdale are five up on Bury with a game in hand, then you have Bury, Macclesfield, Accrington (another Canadian, Thom MacLean, plays for their reserve team), Wrexham and Boston all within three of each other.
- on the flip side, the playoff race is looking like it isn't going to be too exciting. Maybe a couple of teams who are currently out of it that have a chance of getting back in, like Darlington and Peterborough. Swindon, Lincoln and Stockport are almost locks at this point. It's Wycombe that really needs to watch their back.
Some Conference stuff later.
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