Southampton have been advised to remain beware of league rivals, Birmingham City, who can try imitating a Sunderland-inspired promotion run.
Just shy of a year ago, the struggling trio of Burnley, Luton Town and Sheffield United earned the Championship's undisputed favourites tag due to usual relegation reasons. However, it feels odd to admit that only one of them could successfully make it past the second-division with one falling a step down and the other allowing the promotion to slip from their grasp.
Indeed, the Saints fans must have felt sorry for them but they aren't far from worrying about a similar fate for themselves. Now, a Sunderland test isn't expected to give sleepless nights to Will Still's squad for the coming campaign but there is a similar Championship club who can indeed inflict countless on-field miseries on them.
First of all, that club is Birmingham City who are exactly at the same phase Sunderland found themselves slightly less than three seasons back. The second-division, but instead of showing a conservative league safety push, they went all in to bag a crucial playoffs ticket.
Saints must clinch valuable head-to-head results over Birmingham
Agreed, things didn't go their way and they faced a massive setback the next year, yet, Sunderland never stopped dreaming higher and their initial form paved their way towards the ultimate Premier League dream. So, will Birmingham City also wish to mirror their success? Their fans eventually think so.
As quoted by the Football League World, Birmingham City's fan pundit Jason Moore didn't hesitate in setting lofty ambitions: "I think so, to be fair, at the bare minimum it could be top six. But I don't see why we cannot challenge for automatic promotion given the players we have got."
The unwritten norm recommends remaining beware of every league team but Southampton will only know the Blues' quality when they host them at the beginning of December. Win or lose, but the Saints won't have much preparation time to improve matchday mistakes because they are set to close the year with an away trip to Birmingham in the same month.
Assuming them to remain in the bigger promotion picture, Southampton needs to fetch at least four, if not six points from those meetings to boost their Championship standings.