Colaship Catch-Up.

11 games in, any real surprises?

Yeah I know, in a move highlighting my complete denial I have been ignoring the Colaship (publicly anyway). Since Norwich dropped to League One, I have pretended the second tier of English football has been on some kind of hiatus. Well. I’m over it. So, lets take a look at my predictions at the start of the season and see where things stand now, after 11 games. Follow on after the jump for a look see at the runners and riders and those who find themselves in some deep, deep, **** (snigger).

Alright folks, so when I previewed the Colaship back on the 10th of August and made my predictions, I had the top 6 looking like this…

West Brom, Forest, M’Boro, Sheff U, Cardiff, Leicester.

After 11 games, it looks like this…

Newcastle, West Brom, M’Boro, Cardiff, Preston, Sheff U.

Leicester are 7th, out of the play-off zone on GD and Forest sit 10th, just one point from the top 6.

Not bad, with the exception of underestimating the turnaround at St James Park, I am on course. I still think that Forest will will make a promotion push and Preston certainly won’t be in the top 6 come May 2010.

So, lets take a look at Newcastle. They have a smaller squad than last year but have kept alot of high earning players and gone all out for a return to the promised land. Chris Hughton is doing a super job and I think its about time they rewarded him by giving him the reigns on a permanent basis. Of course they likely won’t. He’ll get them back up and then they will hire some over rated foreign manager. Such is life in the EPL. This season the Geordie’s have so far lost just one game. That was away to Blackpool.

The big question at the start of the season was ‘will Newcastle be up for Wednesday night hoof ball at places like Blackpool?’ Well, their trip to Bloomfield Road appeared to be just a blip and since then they put 3 past Plymouth and 4 past Ipswich (snigger). The last two games have seen 2 home draws but Hughton is doing a great job and his players have responded well to Colaship football week in, week out, especially Kevin Nolan, who clearly wants to be back in the EPL as soon as possible. Signing Marlon Harewood from Villa will also prove to be a very smart move as Newcastle now have far too many guns to be stopped from gaining promotion. The Geordie’s have conceded just 5 goals during their first 11 games and currently sit 3 points clear at the top of the table.

West Brom were always set to bounce back, they have too much in the locker for the Colaship and not enough for the Premier League. They are smart in the sense that they keep their team together every time they gain promotion and resist the risk to splash out on players, changing the face of the team and the wage structure. They give it a go and go down safe in the knowledge they are tooled up for a return the following May. Albion are still on course for a return to top-flight football, even though they have conceded 7 goals in their last 6 away games, they have lost just twice this season.

Boro sit third and Gareth Southgate’s team cannot stop scoring goals, problem is they let in too many at the other end. Southgate lost some key players at the end of last season and has a pretty young squad. Last season’s fringe players like Adam Johnson, Justin Hoyte and Marvin Emnes now have key roles. The recent signings of Leroy Lita and Sean St Ledger have been inspired. Lita is a goal beast at this level and defender St Ledger has two goals to his name since joining from Preston just under a month ago.

Billy Davies finally has Nottingham Forest ticking over nicely. They flirted with relegation last season but bought some very good Colaship players over the summer. However, injuries to key players lead to a slow start and Forest took a while to get going.  Three wins in a row and just one defeat in their last 8 has seen them surge to the edge of the play-off action. Losing Robert Earnshaw is a huge blow but Nathan Tyson and Dexter Blackstock are so far taking care of business. Forest have some very good players at this level, I’ll maintain my opinion that they will be there or there abouts, Premier League in view, come next summer.

Nice disguise Roeder.

Down at the bottom I said that Doncaster, Barnsley and Sc**thorpe would be the unlucky three to drop to League One. Currently those three sit 18th, 19th and 20th. One surprise down there this season has been Ipswich! Not that I am complaining, they enjoyed our misery last season and now I shall enjoy theirs.

Ipswich Town are a drunk driver 30 miles from home. I knew that Roy Keane was an awful manager but I expected mid-table mediocrity, not 5 points from 11 games and 5 points adrift at the bottom.

The man has publicly dropped players, spent 9 million on new ones, thrown some of Ipswich Town’s fan favorites under the bus and generally been nothing more than a looping tornado that keeps comes coming back to f*ck  something else up week after week. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that the guy in charge was Glenn Roeder in a Keano mask.  So far this season Ipswich Town have zero wins to their name and have shipped a whopping 24 goals. 300 miles away in Manchester, United fans still sing “Keano, there’s only one Keano”. Yes there is and thank you lord for that fact. Ipswich Town insist that Keane is still the right man for them as he continue’s to keep the train track cluttered. Long may it last.

Find the full Coca-Cola Championship table here.