Double promotion challenge

Thursday, 20/10/2011

by Tom Seymour

Promotion for a football team is one of the greatest achievements in a club’s history.

When Blackpool earned a surprising rise up the leagues, in season 2009-10 it was their first time in the top flight since 1971.

However, some clubs are showing that simply getting promoted is old hat and that if you really want to achieve something you need to get promoted in consecutive seasons. For this feat Norwich City are showing the rest of the football league the way forward.

Following the Canaries’ comprehensive 3-1 victory over fellow promoted team Swansea City; it can be easy to forget that a little over two years ago they suffered their heaviest ever home defeat in a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Colchester United and were firmly rooted to the bottom of League 1.

At that point, not many fans would have predicted that two seasons later, they would be sitting in the top half of the Premier League, having already notched up three wins in their first eight matches. Many at Carrow Road would probably attribute this success to one man – Paul Lambert.

It’s no coincidence that their rise through the ranks coincided with the appointment of Lambert; ironically the man who masterminded Colchester’s 7-1 demolition, before taking the Norwich job six days later.

He is now widely respected as a Premier League manager and his template of success is clearly something others are noticing.

Of the four divisions in the football league, two are currently topped by freshly promoted teams. In the Championship, Nigel Adkins’ Southampton are firmly leading the pack after their 1-0 victory over promotion rivals West Ham.

They are five points clear at the top of the league and look undeterred by the extremely competitive nature of the Championship, despite being the new boys. If they can carry this ruthlessness through the rest of the season, they will follow in Norwich’s footsteps and return to the Premier League following back-to-back promotions.

Likewise, just south of London in the Borough of Crawley, the town’s newly promoted football club are looking to leave the depths of the Blue Square Premier well and truly behind, by striving towards a double promotion.
Crawley Town earned a place in the football league for the first time in their history, with a comprehensive 15-point lead over second place AFC Wimbledon.

Since then manager Steve Evans and his team have not looked back. Despite a heavy 6-0 defeat at the hands of Morecambe, The Red Devils have marched on League 2 with a certain amount of style.

Their 2-1 victory over Shrewsbury on Saturday helped secure them the number one spot in the division and with the funds available to the club, you wouldn’t bet against them to be in the promotion chase come the end of the season.

As Norwich have shown the rest of the promotion chasers, getting promoted once doesn’t really cut it when you can do it twice.

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