Chasing The Big Leagues Southampton and the challengers (English Championship) is a post from: Just Football

Tales from Tier Two is a series on Just Football in partnership with @tiertwofooty, in which we assess the promotion chances of the clubs in tier two of Europe's major leagues at the midway point of 2011/12.

January was another interesting month at the Lamex Stadium. After an unbeaten December and with Stevenage now in the shake up for the League 1 play-offs, Graham Westley was a wanted man. GW and his team were snapped up by Preston North End after weeks of uncertainty over his future. A new era has begun at Stevenage with Gary Smith appointed as the new manager.

The following tables show the number of points earned by teams during 2011.

It's very tight at the top of the Championship table for 2011. Reading have the best points average yet it's Middlesbrough who picked up more points during the year. Both these sides are closely followed by Cardiff City who finish the year having picked up 82 points, an identical tally to Reading.

The last week or so in the Championship have acted as a sudden reminder to anyone who may have thought that the two automatic promotion places might already have been sewn up. Southampton's stunning start to the season has seen them ascend to the top of the table with West Ham United, relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season, clinging onto their coat-tails in second place.

NME Album of the Year: Nevermind by Nirvana Crufts Best in Show: Raycrofts Socialite Palme d'Or Winner at Cannes: Barton Fink Vice President of the United States: Dan Quayle By the time the 1997-8 season came round, two years had elapsed since Reading had lost so gallantly in the play off final against Bolton Wanderers.

Football has a habit of re-writing history. If it isn't trotting out statistics with the prefix "since the Premier League began", then it's defining a relatively arbitrary cut-off point of "post-war". Despite these handy devices it has not stopped Manchester United supporters claiming superiority over Liverpool with their 19 titles (first title won in 1908), one ahead of Liverpool's 18 (first one won in 1921).

This week has seen the return of the Champions League, the pinnacle of European football and the heights to which all spectators aspire. What's the polar opposite of Champions League football being sprayed about a pitch?

That's right it's Robbie Savage dancing near the center circle at halftime of a Championship match, in what can only be described as a leftover prop from Saturday Night Fever.

I'm sure you have heard that Robbie Savage is doing Strictly Come Dancing this year, you may have even tuned in to watch him flopping about. Well the footballer-cum-pundit decided to provide some unique half-time entertainment for the fans at the Madejski stadium on Tuesday night... We all know Savage was a twat when he [.

In last week's profile of Joe Bennett, I ruminated on the nature of the attacking full back and although we have no intention of focusing the Monday Profile on archetypes alone, this third study of September again concentrates on a boilerplate figure. For Andy (like Mr. Cole, seemingly now known as Andrew) Hughes is surely the epitome, the quintessence, the very embodiment of that well known

At first look, West Brom's lone win after their first four Premier League encounters may, to the untrained eye, be symptomatic of the struggles they have endured in past seasons as a "yo-yo" club, shuffling between second-tier triumphs and top-flight relegations.

But the performances put in by Roy Hodgson's side suggest more than the three points out of a possible fourteen, which sees the Baggies lie 13th currently.

Spoiler alert: Exactly what's going to happen in the 2011-12 Championship season is a post from: Just Football

The Football League season's eight-day head start on the Premier League provides a rare chance for clubs in the second tier and below to bask in the limelight.

The national media will respond to the nation's collective anticipation of the new season by lavishing attention on the Championship, League One and League Two for a weekend, before their heads are quickly turned back to the big boys.

Liverpool have been incredibly busy during this summer's transfer window, with...

Given that Leicester shipped six and four goals against Portsmouth and Norwich respectively prior to Sven's appointment last season, it's perhaps no surprise that the Swede has since ring fenced much of his not inconsiderable budget for shoring up the Foxes' defence. Sol Bamba, Ben Mee, Kyle Naughton and Patrick van Aanholt were each brought in by Eriksson last term as Leicester's new owners

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The FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 is currently taking place in Germany and so in this post we feature a reading from 2002 on the history of women's football. The pdf worksheet contains exercises on skimming, note taking, vocabulary building and summary writing complete with answers.

Some readers may have wondered where the two drawings that appear on each page of this site come from. The answer? Ben Piggott, whose fruits of graphite can also be seen at Daily Pen. Here, Ben uses his enthusiasm for tournament football to give us a summary of how all those Football Leaguers (or should that be Championshippers?

With The Two Unfortunates having reached the grand old age of 2, we'll need to keep plugging away for another year to emulate the life span of a worker bee or queen ant. However, several hundred posts down, I thought it was high time to draw readers' attention to some of our contributors' work that has appeared from without the auspices of TTU.

The next in our series on the lost homes of British football comes from Reading, where Reading FC left Elm Park for The Madejski Stadium in 1998. Our thanks go to Rob Langham from the excellent The Two Unfortunates, for this story of the history and memories from Elm Park. We are still very much looking out for submissions on this subject, by the way.

Like Achilles' ankles or Steffi Graf's backhand, Swansea City's weakness over the past few seasons of approximate excellence has been all too obvious. Jason Scotland was the key fulcrum for a time, but the goals for column has rarely been a totalizer at the Liberty. That all ended this Spring when Brendan Rodgers - he of the Big League contacts - took a drive down Fulham Broadway and came back

Picaresque wanderings that would impress Joseph Andrews himself define the career of Michael Duberry; one time Match of the Day super kid and now gracing the portals of the Kassam Stadium, following his arrival at Oxford United as a free agent earlier this week. Having already turned out for Reading and Wycombe, "Dubes" has now set out his stall in each of the counties covered by the Thames

Making his debut for the two unfortunates, Olly Cooper provides some Friday afternoon piffle in the shape of a report on his recent encounter with that iconic Pride of the M4, the Madejski Stadium. I approached getting the chance to play a game at the Madejski Stadium this week with some trepidation.

Don't look directly into his eyes With the score in Monday's Championship play-off final at 3-2 to Swansea, this Reading fan clearly believed that his side could complete a remarkable turnaround. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. And his mistaken belief caused his inner crazy to be captured by the TV cameras.

Ireland striker Shane Long has been reassured that he will be a Premier League player next season, despite Reading's heart-breaking play-off final defeat on Monday.
The Tipperary born player was reunited with the Irish squad on Tuesday afternoon, 24 hours after his Royals top flight dream was killed off by Swansea City.

The Welsh are coming After years of Old Firm breakaway speculation, Swansea ensured they will become the first non-English club to play in the Premier League with minimal fuss. The Swans defeated Reading 4-2 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley yesterday. A Scott Sinclair hat-trick secured top-flight football for the club for the first [.

Swansea City stand firm as an example of how much the fortunes of a football club can change in the space of just a decade. They had been promoted from Division Three (now League Two) at the end of the 1999/2000 season, but tumbled straight back down into it a year later, and this was only the beginning of their problems.

Swansea City have gained promotion to the Premier League next season after beating Reading 4-2 in the play-off Final today, Scott Sinclair scored a hat-trick two from the penalty, while Scott Dobbie got the other.

Reading v Swansea: Championship 2011 Playoff Final Preview is a post from: Just Football

On Monday, Swansea City and Reading will compete in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium for the right to play in the Premier League next season. Both clubs have sold out their allocations for this match, which is worth tens of millions of pounds to the victor the precise value tends to increase every time somebody reports it.

A few weeks ago, that Accidental Groundhopper, Michael Hudson pondered over which Northern League players could make an impact higher up the pyramid. Now, for the second in our series, Barry from the superb site, The Cold End assesses the Isthmian League's finest, deploying its current moniker The Ryman League throughout.

Reading's comprehensive 3-0 victory at the Cardiff City Stadium last night left the home side's supporters with a distinct feeling of deja vu. Even if last season's play-off defeat in a spanking brand new stadium came in the final at Wembley, the pain of missing out on a promotion decider with arch rivals Swansea City in a fortnight's time will be felt just as intensely in the Welsh capital.

For so much of this season, Cardiff City's promotion to the Premier League has had a feeling of the inevitable about it. Perhaps it was the arrival of Craig Bellamy on loan from Manchester City at the start of the season. Bellamy has matured with age, and had the feel of being a player around which Dave Jones could build a team capable of getting back into the top division of English football for the first time in half a century.

A Shane Long brace and a James McAnuff goal gave Reading a comfortable 3-0 win over Cardiff and a place in the Play-off Final where they play Swansea for a chance to play EPL football next year.

You know those political analyses that adorn the Sunday Supplements? The ones that purport to shed light on the Israel-Palestine conflict or the Global Recession? The ones that start off with "Farouk is a small boy" or "The Costanzo Family have lived in Palermo for generations"? The ones that reduce issues of wide geopolitical significance to the level of the individual?

Just Football: Championship 2010-11 Team of the Season is a post from: Just Football

With the Championship 2010/2011 season now drawing to a close, Norwich City up and QPR joining them (nearly), Just Football's resident Championship connoisseur James McMath picks his star performers from this season's campaign.

When Reading Football Club entered the January transfer window a year and a half into their Premier League odyssey in 2007-8, it was clear that the policy of relying on those players who had gained the club promotion was producing diminishing returns. True, a line up composed entirely of men from the Championship winning side had helped ensure an historic win over Liverpool that December, but the

As the Football League season comes to a close fans up and down the country are studying fixtures, league tables and injury lists in order to work out whether their side will earn promotion, or avoid relegation from their current division. However far these fans go with analysis it's unlikely they'll ever get as far as an obscure Football League Regulation, 9.

Goals, goals and sun Nottingham Forest 3-4 Reading (09:04:11) Alistair Hendrie is a journalism graduate who has written for In Bed With Maradona, EPL Talk and a plethora of local newspapers. He also went to one of the best games in the Championship this season... I'm not really a morning person. Despite being an avid football nut, my Saturday mornings are usually a torrid affair involving

Ireland striker Shane Long is refusing to rule out a move to the Premier League - but he insists his burning ambition is to get there with Reading.
Long was again instrumental in Reading's 2-1 win over Preston this evening, providing the pass for Jimmy Kebe to put the Royals in front and being a constant menace in front of goal.

Shane Long's hunger to further his career has only been increased by his emergence as a top striker on the international stage
The Tipperary born Ireland striker scored his sixth goal in 19 senior appearances for 'The Boys In Green' in Tuesday night's 3-2 friendly defeat by World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay, and was also instrumental in winning the penalty which led to his side's second.

Preview: Everton v Reading (19.30) Saha, who has been troubled with a hamstring injury of late, crashed his Ferrari into a fence on Sunday but David Moyes has included him in his squad to face the Championship side. Marouane Fellaini is a major doubt, however, after aggravating an ankle injury in Saturday's Premier League victory over Sunderland and a decision on his fitness will not be made

Reading manager Brian McDermott has hailed the Irish striker partnership of Noel Hunt and Shane Long after they secured a 2-1 Championship win over Millwall at the Madejski Stadium last night.
Waterford born Hunt broke the deadlock three minutes in and even though Millwall equalised through Neil Harris, Long claimed the winner in the 55th-minute.

A favourite sport of fans of Champions-elect teams is to speculate on which players will carve the mustard after ascension to more lofty climes. Back in 2006, as Reading were waltzing to the Championship title, it became a daily activity, but once that first Premier League began, our expectations were often roundly disproved.