The Coca Cola Championship That No One Wants To Win
Posted on March 3, 2009
Pictured above is Reading Club captain Graeme Murty hugging the Coca Cola Championship in 2006 after Reading FC broke all records with a haul of 106 points and had the league wrapped up by February.
The contrast this year is quite staggering with not one team seemingly capable to launch a run of form to send them to Premiership riches. As soon as team looks like putting a run together and making a surge to the top, it gets vertigo and falls away again.
Take the top 3 for example, Wolves, Birmingham and Reading. Between them they have gone on a run of relegation form and are seemingly in a separate competition to see who can screw up the worst. In the last six games, out of a possible 18 points, Wolves have gained 5, Birmingham 6, and Reading 5. That means that out of 54 points available the top three have amassed a total a paltry 16 points between them. Cardiff City, Swansea, Preston, Sheffield United and Bristol City have all surged in to contention only to find the same inexplicable loss of form just at the wrong time, it is quite remarkable.
It may well be that a late run from a team such a Burnley will see them in to the premiership, but teams so ill equipped as them will struggle to gain a point at the next level, and it maybe that chairmen and managers are beginning to worry about the prospect of trying to compete in a big league. Many have tried and failed in spectacular fashion, Leeds, Barnsley, Bradford, Southampton, Coventry, and Leicester, all caved in after losing the riches of Premier League status with administration and points deductions the order of the day.
Whatever happens, it may not be as glamorous, but the Coca Cola Championship at least has less predictability about it, wouldn’t it be great if 9 or 10 sides were still in with a shout in the Premiership! Maybe no one wants to get promoted, thinking that is more fun in the Championship rather than getting battered week in week out in the Premiership. I am a Reading supporter and I have witnessed defeat after defeat in the PL. It just isn’t funny after a while.
View the current form league here. If anyone can tell me who will be promoted, they are a genius, though with the two games in hand over the rest, Reading may still turn up in the Premiership by default. It would be the equivalent to me challenging Tiger Woods to 18 holes of strokeplay golf!
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