How the Championship Golden Boot race is shaping up

By Darren Plant, Senior Reporter | 19 June 2020

Ahead of the Championship's return on Saturday, Sports Mole looks at how the Golden Boot race is shaping up, with Aleksandar Mitrovic leading the way.

Having witnessed the Premier League get back underway with two matches on Wednesday night, it is now the turn of the EFL as the 24 Championship teams look to fulfil their remaining nine fixtures.

As is typical with any second-tier campaign, there is still much to be decided at both ends of the table, while the race for the four playoff spots is as hotly contested as ever.

Away from team matters, a number of players still have ambitions with regards to the Golden Boot, particularly the two attackers who have broken away from the rest of their rivals and, coincidentally, feature in the first fixture on the new schedule.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at how the battle to be top scorer is shaping up.

Aleksandar Mitrovic celebrates scoring a hat-trick for Fulham on October 23, 2019

As it stands, Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic has got his nose in front of Brentford counterpart Ollie Watkins by just the one goal, netting 23 times from his 34 appearances.

However, the Serbia international perhaps deserves more credit for remaining ahead of the Bees striker having started three games fewer and featured for 270 minutes less than his rival.

The two frontmen have recorded one hat-trick apiece, both of which came before the end of October, but Watkins has four doubles to his name in comparison to two for Mitrovic.

Nevertheless, that arguably puts Mitrovic in a better light, with the physically-imposing 25-year-old having contributed a goal in 19 of his 34 outings.

Brentford's Ollie Watkins celebrates after he scores their third goal against Barnsley on September 29, 2019 © Reuters

Although both players have failed to keep up with their earlier ratios in front of goal since the turn of the year, Mitrovic still has five from 10 outings and Watkins seven from 12.

The pair have still been able to maintain a clear advantage over the chasing pack, which is headed by Nottingham Forest's Lewis Grabban.

While 17 goals have come from 36 appearances, the 32-year-old has been far from consistent this season, netting just once from his eight most recent starts for the East Midlands side.

Grabban has only scored in consecutive matches on three occasions, while two of his four doubles for the season came over the Christmas and New Year period.

Queens Park Rangers' Nahki Wells celebrates scoring their sixth goal on January 1, 2020 © Reuters

With Jarrod Bowen out of the running because of his January transfer to West Ham United, Karlan Grant and Nahki Wells are the next two players on the list.

Grant's return of 16 goals for Huddersfield Town is all the more impressive due to over half of his appearances coming out on the left flank, with the 22-year-old also chipping in with four assists.

Meanwhile, having switched from Queens Park Rangers to Bristol City in January, Wells has registered a total of 15 strikes for two different clubs.

All but two of those goals came during 26 games for QPR, meaning that a return of just two efforts from eight matches for the Robins is considerably down on his previous ratio.