Rivals are already off the pace...

EVERYONE keeps saying, rightly, that it is early days, but Aston Villa and Birmingham better get a move on.

At the moment promotion is not on the horizon for either of them.

Villa were lucky to get a home point against Brentford, who remain in the bottom three. When your goalkeeper is man of the match at home it’s not going well.

Birmingham are only separated from Burton Albion and the bottom three on goal difference, yet Harry Redknapp has repeated his claim that Blues will mount a promotion challenge.

Let’s revisit this in a few weeks’ time. He might be right but...

Meanwhile, Coventry City rode their luck at home to Port Vale, after losing Rod McDonald to a red card in the 81st minute.

The Sky Blues won 1-0 and if they can repeat that at home to Carlisle tonight they will stay in contention for the League Two promotion zone.

At the start of the season I wrote in this column that Wolves were the dark horses for promotion to the Premier League.

They are justifying that and are just three points off the top.

Wolves host Bristol City tonight and 888sport have cut them to 6/5 for promotion from 4/1.

Finally, 161 Brentford fans bought a greyhound, Jota El Rey, named after their striker – but he has now moved to Brum and is drawn in the Blue trap in an open final on Thursday at Hove!