Seagulls with altitude sickness...

I’m one of those football fans who associate themselves with an adopted team in each of the top divisions. First and foremost, I am a Newcastle United fan, but I follow other teams loosely too...

npower Championship – Preston North End

npower League One – Brighton & Hove Albion

Blue Square Bet Premier – Bath City

You’ll notice straight away that I don’t support a League Two side, and all I can say is that I’m still searching! As for my other teams, it’s been a mixed season so far. Preston North End are rock bottom of the Championship with just 5 wins in 30 matches and are almost destined for relegation.

Brighton & Hove Albion, by contrast, are just one place behind North End in the Football League standings, sitting prettily in pole position in League One when mid-table obscurity was predicted at the beginning of the season.

Bath City are enjoying a fantastic term, happily lost in the mid-table places, well clear of the relegation zone and dreaming of play-off hope. Adie Britton has done a fantastic job with a bunch of part-time footballers!

It is Brighton though that I would like to draw closer attention to. The last time they were promoted to the Championship, they had Bobby Zamora scoring goals for fun at the Withdean Stadium. This time, it’s more of a combined effort in the goalscoring department. Kazenga Lua Lua (on loan from Newcastle) netted 4 times early on before an injury prevented him staying on the south coast. Striker Glen Murray has 14 goals to his name, Ashley Barnes has 10, and the midfielders have each contributed with three or four each.

The Seagulls have got a good all round team now with Kasper Ankergren in goal and defenders Gordon Greer and Inigo Calderon particularly impressive this season. I think they have a team that could compete in the second tier of the Football League, and it certainly looks promising thus far for the Albion.

And with a move from the often slated Withdean Stadium (which is really an Athletics Stadium, I used to have my primary school sports day there!) to the brand new, 22,500 seater Amex Stadium, they have an arena in which they will look like they belong in the Championship or even (dare I say it) the Premier League.

Black and White Army March On

Well, I’ll be honest here; this is undoubtedly the best season in a long time to be a Newcastle fan. I can’t remember these dizzy heights of joy since the Sir Bobby Robson reign.

For those of you far too interested in the higher echelons of English football to even warrant a glance at the Coca-Cola Championship, the Magpies are five points clear of second-place West Bromich Albion, and ten points and a game-in-hand above third placed Nottingham Forest with just eight games to go in the current season.

The season has gone through the motions with minimal fuss so far this season. At the beginning of the season, Alan Shearer declared that he was interested in what seemed to be a vacant manager’s hot seat at St James’ Park (or is that Sportsdirect.com@ St James Park Stadium?), but Chris Hughton has made the ‘poisoned chalice’ his with spectacular consistency in both performance and results, which has been lacking for a number of years.

Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom have been superb on the attack, but questions are still be asked of their shaky defence which has seen them leak 42 goals in defence, in comparison to the 28 that Newcastle have let through.

It represents a remarkable turn-around in fortunes for the back four at St James’ Park. During Newcastle’s 17-year stay in the top flight, defence was the constant source of criticism from pundits all over the media. To name but a few of the defenders famous for leaking goals; Titus Bramble, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Craig Moore, Oguchi Onyewu, Claudio Cacapa, Olivier Bernard and many more.

But now stability has been found. Can it be retained in the Premier League next season? Only time will tell. Either way, it’s been a great season.

The authoritative voice of Nigel Adkins, Scunthorpe United manager, commented after their recent 3-0 loss to the Magpies; "That's a Premier League side you have just seen out there, end of story, so we don't need to get too disillusioned about the result because that is a Premier League side and a very, very good one."

While it is nice to hear of the fear that Hughton’s men are instilling in opposition teams, I cannot help but disagree with Adkins on this matter. We may just about qualify for Premier League quality at a stretch, but to say we are a ‘very, very good one’ is complete hyperbole. Andrew Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Nile Ranger, Leon Best and Shola Ameobi represent an astounding strike force in the Championship, but move them up a league and they are distinctly, distinctly average.

Looking back on my previous blog post about Premier League relegation, I still think that Burnley, Hull and Portsmouth will be ejected based on a lack of quality and ability to win matches that really matter. These three teams currently occupy the bottom three, and Burnley have been in absolute freefall since Owen Coyle left, and any side with an away form of one point out of a possible 48 is asking an improbable task from their home form to keep them up.

Newcastle - A Premier League club in the Championship?

Newcastle United have reacted well to life in the Coca-Cola Championship, shaking off accusations that they are 'The New Leeds'. Following an embarassing relegation from the Barclays Premier League last season, many thought the club would struggle to keep hold of it's best players and fall further down the Football League ladder.

But here we are. Now in November, and Newcastle are top of the Championship with 30 points from the first 15 games, and have managed to retain a number of the club's best players from last season. A side boasting the likes of Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, Nicky Butt, Alan Smith, Steve Harper, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini should surely be alien to a league below that of the Premier League.

Even branding a team 'The New Leeds' is becoming less insulting, as the Elland Road club are once again knocking on the Championship door, as they lead Coca-Cola League One by an impressive seven points. Things are looking up for the Toon.

But the Championship season is a more of a hard slog. There are 46 games to be played in all, only 15 have been played. Newcastle have already lost three games - all away - to Blackpool, Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe United. On top of that, a number of unconvincing performances - like the home win over Doncaster Rovers. Only the one demolition job - 4-0 on the road to and awful Ipswich side. I have seen little to distinguish Newcastle from their Championship counterparts.

There is an enormous amount of work to be done. I don't think Newcastle United are a Premier League side in the Championship. The big stadium can be deceiving. The big fan base and big name players are even more deceiving. Judge a club on their performances and results. At the moment, things look good - but the Christmas period will be a testing time, as Newcastle's small squad do battle with a frantic fixture list. January is perhaps even more threatening with question marks over the 'Big Names' leaving the club for more immediate Premier League football.

Lets not count our chickens before they've hatched. Newcastle for the Premier League - wait and see.