'Serious play-off contenders' - Portsmouth's incredible league position from date of Colby Bishop's return from heart surgery
He introduced a little bit of magic to Pompey’s season upon his welcome return from heart surgey at the beginning of November.
And Colby Bishop’s presence in the Blues team ever since certainly did the trick as he helped John Mousinho’s side secure their Championship status with two games of the season remaining.
With 11 goals in 30 appearances - including a perfect hat-trick against Norwich on Good Friday - the 28-year-old provided the focal point Pompey so desperately needed up front, despite Callum Lang’s impressive efforts to keep the Fratton Park outfit afloat in the second tier.
On that basis along, his importance to this current Blues side should not be underestimated, with 20-plus goals in each of his two previous seasons on the south coast testiment to that.
There’s other ways to highlight the striker’s value to Mousinho’s match-day plans, though. And perhaps the most startling is Pompey’s record before and after his return.
Before his grand entrance as a 78th-minute substitute against Preston North End - a game in which he scored from the penalty spot - on November 9, the Blues sat rock bottom of the Championship table with just nine points secured from 14 games.
With just one win from those fixtures, the Blues had a win rate of just seven percent and looked odds on for a League One return at the first time of asking.
Yet, fast forward to the present today and ahead of Pompey’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday, and you’ll see Bishop & Co sitting 16th in the standings - six points clear of the relegation zone on 52 points and with 13 wins from their 30 games played since. That represents a win rate of 43 percent. Oh, and there’s also a realistic possibility the Blues could finish in the top half of the table come the end of the season.
Of course, that’s not all down to Bishop’s presence. Yet it’s no coincidence either, though.
With that in mind, we’ve taken a look at what the Championship table would look like if the season began on November 9 - the date of Bishop’s return. And it shows Pompey would have been serious play-off contenders with the centre-forward back in their ranks and firing on all cylinders.
Championship table from November 9 and Colby Bishop’s Pompey return
1 Burnley - 70pts
2 Leeds United - 68pts
3 Sheffield United - 61pts
4 Coventry City - 51pts
5 Bristol City - 48pts
6 Sunderland - 46pts
7 Queens Park Rangers - 43pts
8 Blackburn Rovers - 43pts
9 Pompey - 43pts
10 Middlesbrough - 42pts
11 Swansea - 41pts
12 Millwall - 41pts
13 West Bromwich Albion - 38pts
14 Sheffield Wednesday - 38pts
15 Norwich City - 35pts
16 Preston North End - 34pts
17 Hull City - 33pts
18 Stoke City - 32pts
19 Oxford United - 32pts
20 Watford - 31pts
21 Luton Town - 31pts
22 Derby County - 28pts
23 Cardiff City - 28pts
24 Plymouth Argyle - 28pts