The Championship is easily the most-watched second-tier football competition in the world. It attracts a lot of attention around the world, in part because of some of the huge, historic teams that play in it. It also boasts incredible live attendances, with a league average for the current 2024/25 campaign of almost 22,000, and the 2023/24 season having seen an incredible figure of 23,138.
Given the French top flight only averages around 27,000 fans per game, and two Premier League teams have an average attendance lower than 17,100 (albeit due to the size limitations of their stadiums), the Championship’s allure to paying fans is truly incredible. A big reason that so many sides can bring in such incredible attendances is the blood-and-thunder nature of the Championship and the incredible excitement it produces.
In recent times, we have seen some particularly enthralling battles for the title, promotion, a play-off space and, at the other end of the table, to avoid the drop. The English second tier continues to captivate and in 2024/25 we have a thrilling battle at the top, with three, or even four teams producing the sort of points return that would normally guarantee automatic promotion.
Teams Battle It Out for Play-Off Places
Beneath Leeds, Sheffield United, Burnley and Sunderland, there are 10 teams separated by just seven points, battling it out for two play-off places. It is set to be an incredible end to the season, with around a quarter of the campaign remaining. However, for all the excitement caused by the brilliance of the top four and the play-off battle, perhaps the biggest story of the season is Burnley’s sensational, record-shattering defence.
Leeds have conceded just 21 goals in their 34 games thus far and they could break the current record for the fewest conceded in a Championship campaign. That stands at 30, a figure achieved by Preston back in 2005/06 and also Watford, more recently in 2020/21. However, even if the West Yorkshire side manage to concede eight goals or fewer in their remaining fixtures, whatever benchmark they set is almost certain to be obliterated by Scott Parker’s parsimonious Burnley.
After 34 matches they sit third in the table, seven points adrift of Leeds with a goal difference that is inferior by 16. However, they have lost just twice and have conceded a ridiculous nine goals. That is just 0.26 goals per game, or a goal about every fourth match, which if averaged out over the 46-game normal season would see them concede the astonishingly low figure of 12 goals all term! And they might still not go up – the madness of the Championship!
Burnley’s Records So Far
Burnley 2.0 incoming.. clean sheet https://t.co/P4RIfWrWCl
— DG (@cufcdee) February 22, 2025
Burnley’s shutout against Sheffield Wednesday on Friday the 21st of February was their 12th in a row in the league. That is a club record, an EFL record and the highest ever achieved by a side outside the Premier League (but in the top four tiers of English football). The Clarets last shipped a goal in the Championship before Christmas, back on the 21st of December, 2024.
Since then, eight of their second-tier rivals have changed manager, the US has a new President, and they have played 1,080 minutes of football (excluding stoppage time, which would take the mark to around 1,172 minutes if included). Burnley goalie, James Trafford has faced 23 shots on target and saved them all, helping him to a season-long save percentage in excess of 87%. The club have conceded an xG of just over 10 in their current run, but through bad finishing and excellent goalkeeping their defensive record remains intact.
Trafford has kept 24 clean sheets already in the second tier this term, which, depending on which sources you believe, means he is either tied for the record, or one short. Swansea’s Dorus de Vries won the 2009/10 Golden Gloves award with 25 but back then certain cup and play-off fixtures were included too. That means the record for a standard Championship season stands at 24.
Trafford is now tied with John Ruddy (Wolves) and Paddy Kenny (QPR) on that figure. Whether the true record is 24 or 25, Trafford seems certain to create a new mark for the most shutouts in a Championship campaign. The way Parker’s side are playing at the moment it is hard to see anyone scoring past them and their current streak of clean sheets includes one against the division’s top scorers, Leeds.
Another record that is definitely Burnley’s and Trafford’s is for consecutive shutouts in the Championship. They set the record when they beat Hull 2-0 (a side who have recently scored three against both Leeds and Sheffield United) on the 12th of February. That was their 10th clean sheet in a row but of course they are already up to 12, and who knows when they will next concede.
Records Burnley Could (Or Should) Break
As said, the record for the fewest goals conceded over a whole Championship season seems almost certain to go. Having shipped nine in 34 games, Burnley could afford to concede more than double that many – 20, in fact – over the next 12 games and still set a new benchmark. Trafford also seems guaranteed, barring injury, to break the individual record for clean sheets in a season in the second tier, with just one more from 12 games enough to see to that.
Consecutive Clean Sheets
One big landmark that they will have their eyes on, however, is the all-time record for consecutive clean sheets in the top four levels of the English game. Their run of 12 has moved them ahead of three clubs who managed 11 – Millwall, York and Reading – and they now have only Man United above them.
Alex Ferguson’s amazing team kept 14 successive clean sheets during the 2008/09 campaign. They won the Premier League and League Cup that season, losing to Barca in the final of the Champions League and Everton in the semis of the FA Cup. They were a remarkable team, with Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Gary Neville and Patrice Evra at the back, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in attack and the brilliant Edwin van der Sar in goal.
Haul of Shutouts
Trafford and co might not be performing at quite that level, nor have a centre-back partnership that can compare to the Ferdinand-Vidic axis, considered one of the best in Premier League history, but they might be able to match their haul of 14 shutouts in a row. And maybe even surpass it!
They face Preston in the FA Cup next but that won’t count, so clean sheets against Cardiff, Luton and West Brom will be needed for Parker’s mean machine to reach the magical 15. If they manage those three the club will be on 28 for the season (Trafford has missed one game – where they also kept a clean sheet!) and that will put them within touching distance of the season record for clean sheets.
Port Vale managed an incredible 30 in 1953/54, so six more clean sheets from their final 12 games would see the Clarets break a record that has stood for more than 70 years. The second-tier record is 26, so that is another to file under “when not if” and they also look nailed on to break the record for the fewest goals-per-game conceded. However, whilst records are great, wouldn’t it be just typical of the chaos of the Championship for Burney to break all these historic marks and still not get promoted?!