Brighton and Hove Albion and Newcastle United have been leading the way in the Championship since mid-October and both teams still seem to be performing well.

However, it is interesting to note that only twice in Championship history have the top two teams at the start of February gone on to both achieve automatic promotion to the Premier League – this being Reading and Sheffield United back in 2005-06 and Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion in 2009/10.

There are sixteen rounds of fixtures still to go in the second tier of the English Football League and there is no doubt that the competition will only get closer and closer as the end of the season approaches.

Realistically; all of Reading, Huddersfield Town, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Norwich City, Derby County, Barnsley, Fulham, Preston North End and Birmingham City are still in with a chance of fighting for promotion, along with the top two, and in a matter of games, any of these clubs could be hot on the tails of the league leaders.

This division has often been described as one of, if not the, most competitive divisions in the world and it is often extremely unpredictable. 

With this in mind, here are Shoot!‘s five teams who have turned out to be the surprise packages in the Championship so far this season…

Sheffield Wednesday

Defender Liam Palmer

Since being relegated from the Premier League back in 2000, Sheffield Wednesday have not really enjoyed the best of times in the Football League.

In the 15 seasons that followed this demotion, Wednesday were relegated from the Championship and then promoted back from League One twice – with their highest finish during this time coming in 2006-07 when they finished ninth in the Championship.

Last term, they lost out to Hull City in the Championship play-off final. Typical.

However, the side have been steadily improving under boss Carlos Carvalhal over the last few seasons and are slowly establishing themselves as one of the top clubs in this division.

They are currently in sixth place, occupying one of the play-off spots and have only lost twice in their last ten games.

The Owls have just signed former Middlesbrough striker Jordan Rhodes for £10m and this signing is only going to strengthen their promotion push.

When this signing is combined with the fact that they have been defensively sound all season, Sheffield Wednesday are definitely in with an excellent chance of mounting a real push for promotion.

Leeds United

Striker Chris Wood

Leeds are another side who occupy one of the play-off places, as things stand, and they have been in and around this top end of the table for the majority of the campaign.

Manager Garry Monk has rejuvenated The Whites and, after a slow start, the Yorkshire side have won seven of their last ten games.

Fans will be pleased that the boss has said that he is ready to pledge his long-term future to the club, as they are now in with their best chance of making a return to the Premier League after a long and painful 13-year absence.

The form of striker Chris Wood (Above) has certainly helped the team reach their current position and he is currently the Championship’s second highest goalscorer, behind Newcastle’s Dwight Gayle, with 18 goals in 29 appearances.

Despite their slip-up in the FA Cup against minnows Sutton United, the side from Elland Road have been performing well and after five straight seasons of mid-table mediocrity, could this be the season where Leeds finally challenge for promotion to the Premier League once again?

Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield manager David Wagner

After being promoted from League One back in 2011-12, Huddersfield have endured four seasons towards the bottom of the Championship table – finishing 19th, 17th, 16th and 19th respectively.

This campaign however has been somewhat different for the club from the John Smith’s Stadium and they are fourth in the league, with a game in hand.

This has easily been their best spell in the Football League that most fans will remember and the side have been putting in some rather impressive performances.

Under David Wagner (Pictured), the West Yorkshire club are much improved and the German is quickly making a name for himself in British football.

They began the season six games unbeaten and have won the last three games, which have included fixtures against promotion rivals Brighton and Leeds.

There is still a long way to go in this league and if Huddersfield can keep up their solid performances, they will certainly be one to watch as we near the end of the season.

Barnsley

Barnsley boss Heckingbottom

Barnsley have definitely proved their worth in this division under the leadership of Paul Heckingbottom and they currently sit ninth place in the Championship table.

The gaffer secured the job following the departure of Lee Johnson to Bristol City and has been impressing ever since.

In his first season, the 39-year-old guided The Tykes to victory in the Football League Trophy final and then followed this up by then securing promotion to the Championship by beating Millwall in the League One play-off final.

Now, in only his second season in management, Heckingbottom (Pictured) finds himself in a position where his club is only a few points outside of the Championship play-off spots.

During their last spell in this division, Barnsley had a rather torrid time and only managed to finish as high as 17th in their eight-year spell.

Things seem different this time around though and they could certainly be well within touching distance of the play-offs when it comes towards the end of the campaign.

The only possible reason for their decline now would be due to the loss of Conor Hourihane, James Bree and Sam Winnall to Championship rivals in the most recent transfer window.

Reading

Winger Garath McCleary

Reading have amazed just about everyone so far this season and have been the surprise package of the Championship to date.

At the end of the last campaign, Reading were managerless, had just endured another season way below expectations and saw a large number of players heading for the exit.

However, last summer saw the transformation of the club begin with the arrival of Dutch legend Jaap Stam, who managed to bring in eleven new additions to the Berkshire squad and, at the start of the season, Reading were still somewhat of an unknown outfit to the competitors in their division.

The side from the Madejski Stadium are third in the Championship, just behind the frontrunners, and have won 17 of their 30 league games – four more victories than they managed during each of the last two campaigns.

The additions of Jordon Mutch, Lewis Grabban and Reece Oxford during the January transfer window could prove to be a great bit of business from the club and out of those in contention, Reading will be the most likely to knock one of the top two out of the top spots.