The Championship is one of the tightest leagues we have seen for a very long time. As every football expert has said over the past few weeks: “Any team in the division can beat any other.” That phrase is becoming as well worn and annoying as the fact that Peter Crouch has got a “great touch for a big man”.

Sadly, the reason the Championship is so tight is almost certainly because none of the teams in it are very good. I love Watford passionately but I’ve seen us play plenty of times this year, and we ain’t great!

I reckon most Watford fans would agree with me and I’d hazard a guess that Stoke and West Brom fans might do as well. I won’t include Bristol City fans because they should be enjoying what has been an exceptional couple of years for their club.

’The fact is that of the teams looking at automatic promotion West Brom are probably the only ones equipped to have any chance of survival. Even that would be doubtful.’


The fact is that of the teams looking at automatic promotion West Brom are probably the only ones equipped to have any chance of survival. Even that would be doubtful.

The games on Tuesday night in the Championship showed that Bristol City and West Brom are the two sides who seem to be making their move.

Bristol City are having a wonderful season following their promotion from League One and have opened up just a bit of a lead at the top. Their 1-1 draw at Charlton, having gone a goal behind to a Darren Ambrose strike, was very much a point gained rather than two points dropped. For Charlton, clinging on by their fingernails, the opposite is true. Jamie McCombe was the hero for City.

West Brom had the apparently easy trip to Hillsborough to take on a Sheffield Wednesday side struggling in the drop zone. The game turned out to be anything but easy. It was pretty even until Wednesday had Jermaine Johnson sent off in dubious circumstances. West Brom still had to wait until the fifth minute of injury time for Championship player of the year Kevin Phillips to head home the only goal of the game.

Time for another cliché: “The successful teams win when they don’t play well.”

Stoke City didn’t have a midweek game which manager Tony Pullis will be pleased about. Successive defeats at Preston and Queens Park Rangers have halted their march to the top.

As a Watford fan, I knew that following three straight draws and with games away at Bristol City and Plymouth with a home game against Stoke sandwiched in between to come, we needed to beat Norwich at Vicarage Road.

It started well and big Danny Shittu netted his ninth of the season to put the Glory Hornets in front. Sadly, that was the end of the good news really. It all got a bit scrappy after that and although Norwich never looked dangerous, it wasn’t too much of a shock when Jamie Cureton bagged an equaliser for the Canaries.

Aidy Boothroyd was “annoyed and irritated” by the performance.

Plymouth bounced back from their defeat at West Brom on Saturday with a convincing 4-1 win over bottom club Colchester.

Ipswich will be disappointed with a 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United and Hull won the 8th against 9th ‘battle’ with Burnley 2-0. Battle is the right word as both teams ended up with nine players.

So the top looks like this:

Bristol City 65

Stoke 62

____________

Watford 62

West Brom 61

Charlton 56

Plymouth 55

____________

Ipswich 53

Hull 53

Crystal Palace, Wolves and Burnley are all within three points of Ipswich. West Brom have played a game less than the other teams at the top.

It’s still very close, but Bristol City and West Brom are looking favourites to me. Watford have drawn four in a row. Just turn two of those draws into victories and look at the League table then!

I can already begin to feel the excitement and stomach-turning tension of the play-offs. We don’t need that. Come on you ‘Orns! Beat Bristol City, Stoke and Plymouth in our next three games and we’ll be favourites to go up.

It’s in our own hands. Why does that worry me?