Five things to look out for in EFL: Clocks, parachutes and cold play

British Summer Time will end this weekend if I’m sorry to break it to you if I hadn’t looked out the window lately.

Nearly every EFL team will be almost a quarter of the way through its season by Sunday morning when the clocks turn back.

The upcoming five months of Bovril, bobble hats, and floodlit finishes will have a significant impact on who will advance and fall back when BST returns in March, despite the tables having been being prepared and giving fans a good idea of what the season may hold.

At the top of the betting for Championship promotion back in the summer, Ipswich Town, Southampton, and Leicester City were the three names.

In recent years, the transition from the EFL to the Premier League has become more of a revolving door, with all three teams having dropped out of the Championship after two straight seasons.

Two of the three top-flight teams that have been promoted have received parachute payments in each of the previous five seasons following a previous relegation.

However, two of those three teams, or Sheffield United, the only other Championship side receiving parachute payments this season, will need to find their feet fairly quickly if that pattern is to continue.

The teams that placed fifth, 10th, eighth, sixth, fourth, 18th, 21st, and 15th last season make up the current top eight.

The Blades did escape the drop-zone on Tuesday with a third victory in their first 11 games, but Saints only won once, the Tractor Boys three, and the Foxes four, making them the only relegated team to finish the weekend’s standings.

West Brom will visit Portman Road for lunchtime on Saturday at 12:30 BST, which Ipswich will do to kick off the program.

Town’s five-game unbeaten run at home was ended by Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat by newly promoted Charlton, with Kieran McKenna making seven changes from the side that lost 2-1 at Middlesbrough on Friday.

Leicester travel to Millwall (15:00 BST), where they have won one of their last seven games, while Saints have won just one of their last 10. They then travel to Blackburn (15:00 BST), trying to avoid the terrible shock of being dragged toward the drop zone.

It is important to note that Luton was the only relegated team that failed to return to the Premier League last year and that is now relegated to League One.

Only Cardiff in League One, one of the ten teams that have been relegated from the Premier League, Championship, and League One, currently occupies the top six spot.

Five of the Blades’ previous seven Sheffield United managers will technically be on the touchline as the Blades travel to Deepdale on Friday (20:00 BST) to kick off the EFL weekend.

Between 2021 and 2023, Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom held the first position as interim boss before Slavisa Jokanovic’s 22-game winning streak, playing more than 100 games.

A certain Chris Wilder, who is now in charge after Ruben Selles’ even shorter, but bye year, was his predecessor, and also his eventual successor.

The pair have managed more than 400 league games as Blades bosses, but Friday’s meeting will mark the first time in nearly eight years that the Lilywhites are comfortably above the Blades in the table. Despite their slow start to the season, the visitors are still the favorites to win this one.

Cardiff beat Stevenage 1-0 to move up the rankings on Saturday, thanks to Boro’s 1-0 defeat at sixth-placed Lincoln, while the Bluebirds came from behind to defeat Reading.

The result of Alex Revell’s side’s second-place showing against the Imps will give hope to Saturday’s visitors Bradford, who are third on goal difference alone, with games in hand against Cardiff and Bradford, and two against AFC Wimbledon and Stockport in fourth and fifth.

The Bantams, who recently received promotion from League Two, have since moved up to the third tier, where they have been called ducks to water, and won one of their games last Saturday with a pulsating 2-2 derby draw against Barnsley.

In their seven games since August, Graham Alexander’s side have only managed seven points, all of which were won in Yorkshire derbies, with draws with Rotherham and the Tykes followed by defeats to Doncaster.

Boro have the league’s worst defense in League One with only nine goals conceded, but they have eight goals coming from their four away games outside of Yorkshire and are the division’s top scorers with 22 goals.

Another fierce battle is taking place at the other end of the League One table, between two rival teams that many people believe are likely to at least try to make the playoffs this year.

Blackpool have lost all six of their away matches this season, and they haven’t scored on the road since Ashley Fletcher’s goal after 22 minutes at Exeter on August 9.

The dramatic equalizer from Wycombe at Bloomfield Road on Saturday caused them to fall to rock bottom.

On Saturday (15:00 BST), they will attempt to break their duck when they travel to second-bottom Peterborough.

You just have to love a division like League Two, which is almost a third of the way through the season in the fourth tier.

Five of the top eight teams lost on Saturday, while five of the bottom seven came out on top, with only the bottom two facing defeat from lowly Barrow and Accrington, respectively.

What new chaos will Saturday bring with it?

Can lightning strike twice against Walsall, second-placed Swindon, and Paul Warne’s third-placed MK Dons (can lightning strike twice)? while the race is just off the pace, with Crewe hosting Grimsby, Salford welcoming Gillingham, and Notts County hosting Cambridge United.

The table will undoubtedly have a very different complexion after the final fortnight of matches, with the FA Cup first round starting in November, where six points separate the top ten and only nine are currently in the top 16.

On the BBC Sport website and app, live text coverage of Preston vs. Sheffield United will start the EFL game on Friday, October 24 and will continue until the entire program is available.