This year’s race for the Championship is turning out to be another classic with a whole host of sides still in with a realistic chance of winning the league. With such a wide open division the difference between glory and disappointment will be minimal. The clubs involved will need to pull on any resource they can to take them over the line and into the promised land of the Premier League.
One area which will help determine who goes up at the end of May is goal scoring. It’s not always the very top sides that have the league’s top goal scorers though. Here are some of the strikers that have been lighting up the goal charts this season.
Tractor Boy
Daryl Murphy has taken the league by storm this season. Ipswich may have faltered slightly over the last few weeks and now are hovering around the playoff spots but a large part of their earlier success higher up the table was down to the man from Ireland. Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy has been a fan for a long time and had the striker with him when he was at Sunderland. A career that has seen Murphy at boyhood club Celtic as well as a number of loan moves has finally taken off this term with the striker bagging 22 goals at the time of writing. If he keeps it up Ipswich may well have a chance of going up.
Come on you Horns
Only Bournemouth have scored more goals than Watford and it is a major reason why the Hornets find themselves at the right end of the table with only a few months of the season remaining. The goals have been shared around but both Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney have been major contributors to that success. Ighalo was originally bought in by the Italian owners on loan from their other club, Udinese. The Nigerian striker was initially loaned out to Spanish side Granada but after impressing in the Championship he was bought outright last year. Four second half goals against Blackpool in a 7-2 romp are the standout memory of the season so far, but who’s to say there won’t be more come May?
Captain Troy Deeney has been the other main goal getter at Watford and has really led by example. After becoming the first player since club legend Luther Blissett to score more than 20 goals in consecutive seasons last term, the Birmingham born striker has not let up this year. Sixteen goals so far has helped propel Watford towards the top of the league and thanks to his return it is hard to see them not involved in the promotion race in the final months of the season.
Comeback Kid
One player that has come back to the forefront this season is Norwich City’s Cameron Jerome. After impressing at Birmingham City during their seasons in the Premier League, the striker moved to Stoke. Although he played in Europe and the Premier League there, his goal tally was not impressive and off field problems didn’t help his image. After a spell out of the headlines, Jerome has hit his stride this season at Carrow Road. Always a strong, muscular player, the forward has fired the Canaries into the play-off spots and will be vital if they are to maintain the form needed for promotion.
With hardly anything to separate the teams at the top of an already amazingly competitive Championship it could well be one of these strikers that are reason why their side are celebrating at the end of May.
