Tales from not-the Top Flight

Remember when Aston Villa were rubbish and we were all laughing at John Terry for being really old. Well its time to eat those words I’m afraid as the Villa have been on an absolute tear in recent weeks. Steve Bruce has gone from being in line for the sack too a very stable position and this weekend was another good showing by the boys in Claret and Blue. They beat Bolton Wanderers at home by a goal to nil and it probably should have been more. This victory isn’t the most impressive on their four game winning run as Bolton are in horrendous form.

I think we need to talk about Bolton because they have started the season like a house on fire and of course I mean that bit at the end of the fire when the whole house has burnt down and there is nothing left. I think this desolate image sums up Bolton’s start to the season as they have picked up a miserable 2 points from their first 11 games and have yet to win. Wanderers are already 7 adrift and it looks like mission impossible to save them already. A transfer ban coupled with empty stadiums and awful performances means that it looks like a swift return to League One for the Trotters, which is a shame.

Back to the midlands and its been a rotten time for Birmingham City since they sacked Gary Rowett in January and the Blues are onto their fourth manager since the start of the year, Steve Cotterill is the man this time and he has an almighty task on his hands. Cotterill was actually part of Arry’s backroom staff that kept Brum up last season but left in the summer. The club is in an even worse place since he left as Hull thrashed them 6-1 at the weekend. It’ll be interesting to see if the blues can catch up with their cross city rivals but even if they can’t at least they’re not Bolton.

It was not a particularly great weekend for the top three who all dropped points. Just as calls of ‘back to back promotions’ started to become louder Sheffield United only went on to lose away at Nottingham Forest 2-1. To make matters worse for the Blades, Wednesday went and beat Leeds who have fallen down to 5th with back to back losses. Cardiff too were held at home while Wolves burst back into the top two with a 4-0 win away at Burton.

One of the more under radar stories of the season might be Bristol City’s surprisingly good start to the season. City were tipped to go down by certain pundits (maybe me) but have proved everybody wrong as they sit 4th in the table having lost only one game. So when they go on and win the play offs we can all look back and laugh at my predictions article, which is essentially the point of prediction articles.

Its an international break next week, so no Championship, but League One and League Two are still happening so we’ll focus on them instead.