It should not be allowed, really.
We wonder why patience runs so thin in football when after the first Match of the Day of the season, they publish a league table. Some of the teams had not even played by then, for goodness sake. This newspaper – most newspapers – are guilty too.
When mid-season form tables are printed, they go off five games, so taking any notice before then is particularly pointless.
“It’s nice to see us up there, joint top in terms of points, but ten games is when it starts to form,” argued Sunderland ’s manager Jack Ross on Saturday night. “But it’s nice to see us up there, nice to see us in this vein of form.”
According to the table, the Black Cats are joint top of League One, level on 11 points with Ipswich Town, Blackpool, Wycombe Wanderers and Coventry City.
But this season’s early League One table is even more nonsensical than its counterparts.
Bury are bottom with minus 12 points thanks to financial mismanagement. They are still to play a game.
Bolton Wanderers are 23rd with minus 11, but have only played four. Their midweek match against Doncaster Rovers was postponed because of “welfare” issues with the young squad they have had to field since going into administration late last season.
Portsmouth’s weekend game against Rotherham United was called off because it clashed with the Victorious music festival.
So the table is already a mess – Bury have five games to make up, Rotherham two and we are still in August. But it could be about to become a lot worse.
On Tuesday at 5pm Bury could be thrown out of the Football League. Bolton, whose plight has not seemed quite so bad, may be too, the authorities tiring of a takeover which has been “just around the corner” for ages.
Wycombe, Coventry and Ipswich have already taken points off the Trotters this season – the footballing equivalent of sweets from a baby. Ipswich won 5-0 there on Saturday. By Wednesday, those results could have been scratched from the record. If not, those teams have got lucky in profiting from their malaise in a way Bury’s prospective opponents have not done.
No one wants to see either historic Lancashire club fold, but the League are right to insist a line has to be drawn in the sand.
Sunderland are unbeaten in the league this season, having won their last three matches. Where that puts them in the table is not something anyone should take seriously.
