I think it’s been a very competitive Championship season; I wouldn’t necessarily put it down as a classic; I’ve not always been convinced by some of the quality of the football that we’ve been watching, but I think in terms of finding a close competitive league you’re not going to do better than looking at The Championship.
So I thoroughly enjoyed it for that reason really. You look at Birmingham’s wage bill of £22 million and you think crumbs, they had to go up didn’t they, and Wolves pay very handsomely too.
I’m not really that surprised by the make up of the top four clubs, I’m pleased for Burnley and Preston that they’ve stepped into fifth and sixth.
I’m sad for Cardiff because I’ve really enjoyed watching them play over the course of the season, I think they’ve played some terrific stuff under Dave Jones and for them to miss out over one goal is pretty hard on them and after they had a decent cup run too.
But overall, I’ve enjoyed it, not too surprised that Wolves and Birmingham are the two that have gone up automatically and now we have the frenzy of the play-offs to look forward to.
I ought to give honourable mention to Doncaster and their manager Sean O’Driscoll who is perhaps the quietest manager in football, certainly the shyest. But some of the players like Brian Stock - he’s been a privilege to watch for most of the season, until he got injured, and the likes of Heffernan and Coppinger.
They’re a great little team, I saw them against Wolves round about the turn of the year and they lost at home, unluckily to a late goal and I thought they didn’t have much chance of staying up. But they have been fantastic in the second half of the season and they’ve played some of the best football in the division.
As regards those giants Charlton, Southampton and Norwich dropping into League One next season and I think all three have got something in common which has cost them.
They’ve all been on a downward spiral for some time, but all of them have got key managerial appointments wrong in my opinion.
Phil Parkinson, Jan Poortvliet, Glenn Roeder and then Bryan Gunn came in really rather too late because the way of things were already set at Carrow Road, by that stage of the season and I think that it was built on emotion as well as commonsense.
But you look at what has happened to those clubs and that fact that teams, well in Charlton’s case two years ago they were a Premier League outfit and they’re going into League One. On the one hand, it's great because it emphasises the democracy and the fairness of English league football, but at the same time it shows that there are no guarantees any more and I think for the neutral that’s fantastic.
I appreciate that if you’re a Charlton, Southampton or Norwich fan and you’ve got your head in the oven at the moment you don’t, but for those of us watching without a particular brief for a particular team it's wonderful.
I feel sorry for Steve Coppell and Reading, I think they’ve lost form at the crucial time. My two to go through to the final would be Sheffield United and Burnley.
Burnley have shown themselves to be masters of one occupation, I mean 12 cup ties this season so far and now they face two, possibly three, more and I just think they deserve something because really they should have gone to Wembley in the Carling Cup.
And I think that Owen Coyle who is a bright, young astute manager who still pulls his boots on from time to time in the reserves and deserves some success. But equally I think that Kevin Blackwell has done a terrific job at Sheffield United, bringing them through like a jockey on the run-in because he’s brought them to form just at the right time.
So I think Sheffield United against Burnley is likely to be the Championship play-off final but please don’t ask me to choose between the two of them.
I’ll give you some picks if you like; in League One, I’m going to go for Leeds, and, in League Two, I've nothing against the other three sides involved but I'd like to see Shrewsbury make it because I think Paul Simpson has done really well there.
Jon Champion was speaking on the Coca-Cola Football League podcast - check it out here: www.football-league.co.uk, www.cokezone.co.uk or on iTunes.