The race to be anonymous in the Championship next year is heating up

Now that the Championship has morphed into toddler football matches where twenty-two hyperactive maniacs thunder around a field chasing the ball, teams would be wise to stick to the Premier League. Already Derby will be practicing their head-down running techniques, and Fulham should probably start swotting up on moping around in the centre circle crying for mummy. The rest, however, might still be allowed to play football next season.

The statistics

* In the last seven seasons, ten teams have conceded sixty-five or more goals in a season and each one has been relegated. This season Derby have let in seventy-six, Reading have now let in sixty-five.

* Nobody higher than 17th in the league at this stage of the season have gone on to be relegated in the last ten years, which should encourage Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Wigan and Bolton.

* In each of the last three seasons, a team who has been in the bottom three at this stage has risen up to survive (West Brom, Portsmouth, West Ham).

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