10 Surprising Stats From The 2023/24 Championship Campaign

The regular 2023/24 Championship campaign finally reached its climax on Saturday, capping another ten-month festival of football in England’s second tier.

Over 12 million spectators attended 552 Championship fixtures and witnessed 1,480 goals over the course of a gripping campaign and with the play-offs still to come, the 2023/24 season is gearing up to deliver one final dramatic act.

Last summer, odds-on favourites Leicester City were heavily backed to secure automatic promotion in the outright markets and the Foxes delivered on their pre-season promise, pipping Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich to the Championship title.

At the other end, Rotherham were unable to defy their tag as relegation favourites on sports betting sites and the Millers dropped out of the division alongside Huddersfield and Birmingham.

With the dust starting to settle on what has been a dramatic journey between August and May, we thought it would be a fitting time for some retrospection and below, we’ve compiled a list of 10 surprising stats from the 2023/24 Championship campaign.

QPR’s impressive defensive numbers

Marti Cifuentes’s QPR just about beat the drop thanks to a flurry of late wins, however, despite finishing down in 18th position, Rangers ended the season with the 8th-best defensive record in the Championship, while only six clubs posted a better xGA (expected goals against) figure for the campaign (51.00).

Southampton corner kings

Play-off contenders Southampton had to be content with a 4th place finish in the Championship this season, though the Saints topped the pile for another metric, winning more corners (341) than anyone else in the division. Southampton won a full 56 corners than the next-best performing team in that department, Coventry City.

Millwall the most prolific foul merchants

Mid-table Millwall didn’t shy away from the rough stuff in 2023/24 and the Londoners racked up more fouls over the campaign (591) than any other outfit. Millwall committed a whopping 12.84 fouls per game in the Championship, however, five other clubs collected more yellow cards than they did.

Sorba Thomas a keen creative force

Huddersfield Town limped out of the Championship in second-last position this season, though their versatile Welshman, Sorba Thomas, enjoyed a productive campaign from an individual perspective. The 25-year-old lodged four goals and nine assists and finished as the league’s top performer for average key passes played per game (3.00) ahead of some high-profile rivals.

Whittaker’s staggering shooting stats

Rising Plymouth star Morgan Whittaker has been tipped to secure a move to the Premier League this summer and the 23-year-old was unmatched in the Championship this term for total shots attempted (167). Whittaker scored just twice in his last 15 appearances for Argyle, however, despite racking up 50 attempts.

Leeds set unwanted record

Leeds finished the regular Championship campaign in third spot, though ordinarily, their 90-point haul would have secured them automatic promotion. Indeed, the Yorkshire men’s tally was the highest-ever points total set by a team not to secure automatic promotion in a single Championship season. Ouch.

Trai Hume the tackling machine

Promising 22-year-old Sunderland right back Trai Hulme got through a truckload of defensive work for the Black Cats in 2023/24. The defender made a bone-crunching 152 tackles in the Championship this season, making him the most prolific player in the division for that metric by quite a way. Ipswich’s Sam Morsy ranked a distant second for total tackles made (119).

Managerial merry-go-round

17 different managers lost their jobs over the course of the 2023/24 Championship campaign. Neil Warnock was the first to go when he resigned from his role at Huddersfield on September 20th, while Rotherham parted ways with head coach Leam Richardson on April 17th, the final managerial departure of the 46-game season.

Card happy referees

An average of 4.17 cards were brandished per game in the Championship this season, though two card-happy referees posted trend-bucking figures in that department. Matt Donohoe handed out more yellow cards than any other official in total (132), though Keith Stroud led the way for average yellows dished out per game (4.79).

Clarke’s dazzling feet

Sunderland’s Jack Clarke put in some sparkling performances on the flank in the Championship this term and the 23-year-old winger completed more successful dribbles than any other player in the division (148). Leeds’s Georginio Rutter was the only other player in the league to have topped a century of successful dribbles in 2023/24 (127).

RELATED ARTICLES

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

Leave a Reply