Tales from not-the Top Flight

Jorge Mendes FC, or Wolverhampton Wanderers as the locals occasionally refer to them as have been having a lovely old time this season and it seems it will hard for any team to stop them from being a contender at the very end of the season. Their summer transfer strategy of buying loads of good players and then bringing in a very capable manager has paid off dividends as they swept aside Aston Villa 2-0 at home this weekend, a side who themselves were on very good form heading into the match but simply could not match up to the 3-4-3, a system still very rarely used in the Championship, and found themselves well beaten. Wolves’ talent is quite frankly ludicrous for the Championship, Ruben Neves and Helder Costa are two players in particular that will be in the Premier League very soon, one way or another.

The other big game this weekend was the East Midlands Derby as Nottingham Forest travelled to Pride Park to face Derby County. The Rams were not in good form at all heading into this one, having not won in five but their fortunes turned around pretty quickly after County scored a goal within 30 seconds of kick off to send the home fans into dreamland. Forest had chances but the man, the myth, the legend David Nugent grabbed a second goal in the second half which sealed the game and the bragging rights in this hotly contested derby. Derby manager Gary Rowett will be hoping that this win is the springboard his team to find some consistent form this season and make a play-off push.

Elsewhere Sheffield United are catching Cardiff up after a win at home while the Welsh side travelled to Birmingham to face Steve Cotterill’s new side and were on the receiving end of a 1-0 loss. Brum fans will be hoping there will finally be some stability at the club with the Blues on their fourth manager in less than a year. There is optimism too for Bolton who defeated Sheffield Wednesday at home to finally claim their first win of the season. The Owls’ manager Carlos Carvalhal is under enormous pressure and I would be lumping money on him to be sacked in the near future, the blue half of Sheffield is seriously lagging behind their rivals and the rest of the top sides. And no we are not mentioning Middlesbrough’s result.