Too early to talk of Southampton as promotion certainties

FL Extra

21Oct

Too early to talk of Southampton as promotion certainties

Southampton are the team to beat in the Championship. That’s what their manager Nigel Adkins thinks, anyway. Five points clear at the top of the table with a 100% win record at home, they’ve had a great start. But it’s still too early to think about promotion to the Premier League, warns the Life’s A Pitch panel.

“It’s a bit early to say that [they are promotion certainties],” explains Janine Self of The People of Southampton. “But they’re certainly unstoppable at home. I think Nigel Adkins has done a fantastic job. He’s only been doing the job for five years; [and has achieved] three promotions already, so he does know what it takes. But the leap from League One to the Championship and the leap from the Championship to the Premier League are completely different worlds. But long may it continue.”

John Cross of the Daily Mirror believes that the quality and goals of Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana has given Southampton an early advantage in a particularly close Championship title race. ”It [the title race] does seem quite level actually, which is why Southampton – who are enjoying this wonderful run of form – have managed to separate themselves from the rest,” he says. “You look at Southampton, who have two or three players that stand out – like Lallana and Rickie Lambert – and I think that gives them the edge over the rest.”

Two teams relegated from the Premier League last season, Blackpool and Birmingham, have had slower starts to the season. And Martin Lipton, also of the Daily Mirror, is not surprised given the financial limitations of both clubs.

“It’s no real surprise, they’re quite impoverished, the pair of them,” he says. “I think that the mess at Birmingham is going to get worse and worse. And Blackpool were always going to have a tricky time readjusting. They lost Vaughan, who was probably their best players last year along with Adam. They’ve both gone. Campbell has gone as well.”

Related articles:

Video: Cotterill is a “safe, under ambitious appointment” by Forest

Video: “I expect Southampton and Brighton to challenge this season”

Mike Calvin: Managers to watch – Nigel Adkins

Follow Life’s a Pitch on Twitter @BTLifesapitch

Watch Southampton live on BT Vision:
Reading v Southampton, live 5pm, 22 October, Sky Sports 2

Not got BT Vision? Find out how to get it

More live football fixtures on BT Vision

Comments

Please leave your comments using the box below. Learn more

Mrzippy

come on now its Nigel not Ian Adkins, if you cant even get the name right how can we take anything you say with a pinch of salt
JimBob76

I think it’s unfair on the rest of the squad, who have worked their socks off so far this season, to say that being top is thanks to Lambert and Lallana. While they are two good players, praise must be given to all those involved as a collective.
Chris

These people have next to no idea what they are talking about.
Mrzippy

Nice to see you changed the name , jimbob you are the squad is what is great at southampton having lallana and cork not playing last week two of are best players , then having Chaplow and hammed play and for me chaplow was man of the match …. like you said lot more to us being top than just one or two plays every one is on the bus
http://www.allfootballnewsnow.com/too-early-to-talk-of-southampton-as-promotion-certainties/ Redirecting::AllFootball Newsnow

[...] click here if the article does not [...]
http://e-classifieds.org classifieds

classifieds…

I think one of your commercials triggered my browser to resize, you might want to put that on your blacklist….
http://www.auto-deflectors.com/product_info.php/cPath/79_80/products_id/112 Hyundai Window Deflectors

Hyundai Visor…

Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you’re just too excellent. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you’re saying and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still care …
http://www.auto-deflectors.com/product_info.php/cPath/79_82/products_id/260 Hyundai Verna Headlights Cover

Hyundai Solaris (2010-) Spoiler…

Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Numerous people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!…
http://www.auto-deflectors.com/product_info.php/products_id/286 AUDI Q7 Headlights Cover

AUDI A4 Covers…

My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching t…
http://www.primiumedubacklinks.com/?page_id=278 Edu Backlinks in comments

Edu Backlinks…

We sell edu links on your site in comments, and as creation of profiles at forums. We are engaged in sales of links since 2011. We use license programs such as Scrapebox and Allsubmitter….
http://dagadwadaw.com dawdawf awdafawdawd

hdadwa…

adawfagawdawdawdawd…
http://www.webseo.biz/ Suchmaschinenoptimierung

Suchmaschinenoptimierung…

This web site won’t display properly on my i phone – you might wanna try and repair that…
http://www.motgetolin.com/ gutrolacitd

Read was interesting, stay in touch……

[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……

BT is not responsible for any external content or links uploaded by users of the site. Nor does the presence of information or links about other parties' products or services confer any form of endorsement of another party's products or services by BT. Please show respect to other users and avoid bad language when posting