Championship first round: long set-ups, dramatic comebacks and Southampton’s record

Fans of the Premier League will have to wait until next weekend for the start of their favourite competition, but the lower English leagues have already got underway and managed to offer some interesting performances and results. We now take a look at the action in the first round of the Sky Bet Championship.

England’s second highest competition kicked off with Sheffield Wednesday, who were promoted from League One last season, taking on Southampton, a side who were relegated from the Premier League.

Saints secured the three points with three minutes left in regulation time thanks to substitute Che Adams, but they have inspired the fans for the rest of the season with the attractive style of play that new coach Russell Martin has imposed on the team.

His charges notched 477 successful passes in the first half, a new league record. Overall, they recorded 931 passes, which ranks them second.

On Saturday, there were 8 games to watch and the fans of Watford and Stoke City can be especially happy as their teams offered them a 4:0 and 4:1 win respectively.

Hornets fans waited only 36 seconds for the first goal of the season before Dele-Bashiru scored, and then saw three more before the end of the half. QPR are one of the main relegation candidates according to experts and their “performance” at Vicarage Road only confirmed it.

Experts also give poor chances of staying up to Rotherham, who were the Potters’ favourites. André Vidigal, the summer signing, contributed with two goals.

Plymouth also got in on the action, playing their first Championship game since 2010. It was a successful return, with last year’s League One champions beating Huddersfield 3-1 at home.

Norwich fans saw a slightly more dramatic win. The club’s offspring took care of turning the situation from 0:1 to 2:1 – first Jonathan Rowe drew attention with a fanatical first goal for the club (in his first start) and Adam Idah made the decision in the sixth minute of the setup.

Blackburn also had a successful start to the season, beating West Brom 2-1 thanks to two first half goals, and Millwall were the only team in the league to win away from home on Saturday, taking a 1-0 win away from Middlesbrough. Eighteen-year-old Romain Esse scored his first goal in professional football.

The points were then shared between Bristol City and Preston and Swansea and Birmingham after 1-1 draws.

On Sunday, the remaining two teams who were relegated from last year’s Premier League kicked off the season.

Leicester didn’t put in a convincing performance against Coventry, but were saved by Dewsbury-Hall’s two goals, who single-handedly turned the game around to 2-1 at the end and showed that he should be the driving force for the Foxes this season.

It was Leeds at home against Cardiff who put in a good performance but had to settle for a point, and a point that they had to work hard for.

After half-time they were 0:2 down and it was Summerville who equalised in the fifth minute. Seventeen year old Archie Gray also drew attention to himself and was voted Player of the Match.

The first round of the competition concluded with a match at the Stadium of Light between Sunderland and Ipswich. Ipswich, who returned to the Championship after 4 years, were able to celebrate their 2-1 victory. Jobe, the younger brother of Jude Bellingham, made his debut for Sunderland, but he will not remember the match in a good way – he drew attention to himself especially with a missed chance.

A big theme of the first round of the Championship (and lower English leagues) was the longer setup. It was announced before the season that referees would pay more attention to how much time substitutions, treatment, celebrations, and the like take, and then reflect that in the setup.

And it showed. Last season in England’s second highest competition, matches lasted an average of 98 minutes and 20 seconds; in the first round of this season’s competition, it was 104 minutes and 8 seconds.

Sources: Sky Sports, Twitter, Sky Bet Championship