It is high season for engravers, a fertile few weeks for after-dinner speakers to make hay at elaborate end-of-season dos, but not every Championship team has something worth celebrating. Last Saturday, three hours after Cardiff’s players sank to the turf when the final whistle confirmed their relegation to the third tier, a division the club has not played in for 22 years, the squad slipped into suits for their annual black-tie awards night in a suite overlooking the same surface.
At some point, Rubén Sellés, the Hull head coach, seemingly got wind of the jarring circumstances and cancelled his team’s bash, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, to prevent a similarly tone-deaf evening.
That provides another reminder the grass is not always greener. All the teams involved in the scrap to retain their second-tier status changed manager during this campaign – with mixed results. On 13 February, the day Derby turned to their former midfielder John Eustace to save their season, Luton were propping up the division and Preston were 11 points clear of the relegation zone. As recently as 3 March, Preston were closer to the playoffs than the bottom three, and they had a game in hand on Luton and Derby, who by that point had slid to the bottom after a winless start under Eustace. Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston had also just beaten their rivals Burnley to advance to the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Now Preston, who travel to playoff-chasing Bristol City, are bottom of the form table after taking six points from the past 30 available. Derby, who host Stoke, are one of the form teams after two defeats in their past 10 matches. Luton, who visit West Brom, have won three games on the spin under Matt Bloomfield, who made a slow start after jumping up a division.
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Bloomfield’s first win after leaving a Wycombe side gunning for promotion came at the ninth attempt, but they have hit their stride. Mark McGuinness, their marquee signing from Cardiff last summer, has impressed in defence as has Thomas Kaminski in goal.
Kaminski started Luton’s priceless victory last Saturday over Coventry, another team vying for the top six, despite the death of his father, Jacek, three days earlier. Bloomfield got the Eurostar to Brussels to accompany the Belgian back to England 48 hours before the win. “It means everything to me,” a teary Kaminski said. “Normally I should have had a message from my dad … I didn’t have it today but I know he is watching and with us and would have been very, very proud.”
The only certainty from here is that the pendulum of emotions will continue given the stakes. This time last season Luton were winning friends in the Premier League, duking it out with Nottingham Forest to avoid the drop before succumbing on the final day. Derby were in party mode after clinching promotion as runners-up. Stoke finished strongly to dispel relegation worries. Preston, meanwhile, ended 10th – nestled in the safe zone – after a dismal five-match losing run.
For one team, things are about to take a turn for the worse.
