📚 Championship mid-season report: The eight promotion hopefuls | OneFootball

We’re just over halfway through the 2021/22 Championship season. Most campaigns in recent years have been memorable but 2021/22 may just pip the lot.

Let’s have a look at the progress of the likely runners and riders for the promotion and play-off places come May.

1st – Fulham

No one in the top two divisions of any country in Europe right now has scored more than Fulham.

Not Bayern Munich, not Real Madrid, not Manchester City, not Inter.

The Cottagers are on an astonishing run of form, having become the first side since the mid-1950s to score six goals in three consecutive games earlier this month.

It’s been a complete team effort but particular praise has to go to Aleksandr Mitrović, who is just far too good for this level and will no doubt fire Fulham to an automatic promotion place.

2nd – Blackburn

Arguably the story of the season so far, Blackburn are back where many think they belong.

Despite an inauspicious start, Tony Mowbray’s side have exploded since their 7-0 defeat to Fulham in October, losing just once since.

A lot of that has been down to the brilliance of Ben Brereton Díaz, who has been astonishing since his summer sojourn at the Copa América with Chile.

The former Stoke striker is now up to 20 league goals for the season and could complete the most remarkable year should he go to the World Cup in November.

3rd – Bournemouth

If getting promoted from the Championship is all about momentum, then things are going the wrong way for Scott Parker’s Bournemouth.

After a stunning start saw them pull away from the pack and jostle for top spot with Fulham on a weekly basis, the Cherries have fallen off a cliff, losing as many games (three) post-Christmas as they had in the previous four months.

Dominic Solanke is banging in the goals and looks a cut above in the second tier but walking yellow card Jefferson Lerma and Philip Billing are struggling in midfield.

It’s going to be a captivating few months as they cling to their automatic promotion ambitions.

4th – QPR

QPR are back.

After a decade of being a punchline in English football for overinflated wages and egos, the west London side are back to reaching their potential under Mark Warburton.

January’s home win over West Brom was the confirmation that the Hoops are genuine contenders for a promotion spot this season, they stuck to a smart, tactical gameplan and stole the spoils with an 89th minute Charlie Austin winner.

Austin is banging them in at one end but it’s Rob Dickie who is the real star of their show at the other, the commanding centre-back has been linked with several Premier League clubs over the past six months.

5th – West Brom

Hopes were high when West Brom hired Barnsley boss Valérien Ismaël over the summer.

After unexpectedly taking the Yorkshire side into the play-offs last term, Ismaël was seen as a huge coup for the Baggies who also added the likes of Adam Mowatt and Jordan Hugill to their ranks.

It hasn’t quite gone to plan.

Inconsistency has plagued the Black Country outfit, with the side having a rather unhelpful habit of losing big games and picking up red cards.

February fixtures against Sheffield United, Blackburn, Luton and Middlesbrough will determine their season.

6th – Middlesbrough

Chris Wilder was appointed in November last year and has almost immediately turned things around at the Middlesbrough.

Huge wins over Nottingham Forest, Swansea and Huddersfield have seen Boro fly up the table into sixth place with a real sense of momentum building at the Teeside club.

There’s a lack of star quality in this squad, but in some ways that’s working to their advantage with all the box office quality coming from the touchline.

7th – Huddersfield

Another club who have been in the doldrums of late but are back under a progressive new manager.

Huddersfield last tasted Premier League football back in 2019 but sunk like a stone following the dismissal of coach David Wagner.

Former Leeds assistant Carlos Corberán however, has rejuvenated the club this season with goals coming from all over the pitch.

It’s Danny Ward who has grabbed headlines recently though, with his hat-trick securing a 4-3 win over Reading and taking the Terriers into the play-offs for the first time.

8th – Nottingham Forest

We knew Steve Cooper was a good coach after his sterling work at Swansea over the past couple of seasons but the former England youth boss has earned himself a new round of plaudits this term with the work he’s done at Nottingham Forest.

A giant of a club that’s been too low for too long, Cooper has reignited belief levels at the City Ground with Forest now having lost just two games since the start of November.

It’s been over two decades since the former European champions were in the Premier League but this could finally be the year when the giant awake from their slumber.