COLCHESTER United are three points adrift of their total at this time last season, even though the U's class of 2006-07 lost their first four league games in the Championship, writes Carl Marston.

By Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United are three points adrift of their total at this time last season, even though the U's class of 2006-07 lost their first four league games in the Championship, writes Carl Marston.

Geraint Williams' men have accrued 11 points from their first 10 games this term, as opposed to 14 last year. The big difference has been at Layer Road, where United picked up three home wins on the bounce against Derby, QPR and Ipswich, at the start of an 11-game winning sequence at home in 2006.

By contrast, the U's failed to win any of their first four Layer Road fixtures this term, until defeating basement side QPR 4-2 last week.

But there's no need to panic, because a league table after 10 fixtures usually bears no resemblance to a league table at the end of a campaign - though I'm guessing that U's boss Geraint Williams would be satisfied with their current 17th place.

After 10 games last season, Cardiff City were setting the pace on 23 points, five clear of the field. Yet the Welshmen had nosedived out of the top six by Christmas, and eventually finished below Colchester in the table.

In fact, only one of the three teams that were destined to clinch promotion to the Premier League were in the top six by early October last year.

Birmingham were well positioned, but it was Preston, Crystal Palace, Southampton and West Brom who filled the play-off berths.

Eventual play-off winners Derby County were in ninth after 10 games, while champions Sunderland were below the U's in 14th spot.

At the other end of the table, the bottom two of Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City were both to pull clear of the drop zone. Third-from-bottom Southend did go down, but Leeds (20th) and Luton (10th) did not look like relegation material after 10 fixtures.It's a similar scenario in League One. Nottingham Forest and Yeovil were heading League One at this time last year, but both were to suffer play-off anguish in May. Bristol City (third), Scunthorpe (seventh) and Blackpool (21st) were the three to clinch promotion into the Championship.

The demise of Bradford City was even more marked. They were flying high in fourth spot at this stage 12 months ago, but were to ultimately suffer relegation into League Two, as did Chesterfield, who were also in the top half in October, 2006.