Championship fans understandably may not have been giving last season's League 1 promotion race their full attention, but let me tell you it was quite the spectacle.

With the benefit of hindsight the battle was always between the three sides that eventually made it over the line and into the Championship, but there were some astonishing twists along the way for Plymouth, Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday.

On the 4th February, Sheffield Wednesday beat Plymouth 1-0 in what looked then like a pivotal title swing in the Owls favour. Not only did they move top having played a game fewer, but Plymouth also lost their star player Michael Cooper to a long term injury during the defeat. The eagle eyed amongst us though had spotted that about one week after this game Plymouth would have already finished playing all the top teams in the division with over two months of the season remaining. If they could keep to the standards they'd set against the rest, Plymouth would likely be able to post a pretty formidable points total. That's exactly what they did, winning 12 out of their last 16 and hitting 101 points to become very worthy champions.

While Plymouth's trajectory stayed unerringly similar throughout the same can absolutely not be said when it comes to Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich. Wednesday were hot title favourites following that big early February head to head win with Plymouth, but the game that confirmed their 23 game half season undefeated streak was also the first of a decisive run of a meagre one win in the next eight. That run was certainly enough for Plymouth to take advantage of, but what of Ipswich, the third team in this tale?

I'm calling Ipswich the third team, but it didn't seem that way on Valentine's Day when they dropped to fourth place after a drab 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers. At this point they were eight points behind Sheffield Wednesday having played one game more. For Ipswich to even be in the top two conversation would take an incredible run to the finish line and a big stumble from somebody up ahead of them. Sheffield Wednesday duly assisted with the stumble but the run Ipswich went on to take second place was absurd to the point I still can't quite fathom it. Town won 13 and drew two of their final 15 games scoring 45 goals, that's nearly 3.5 per game, and conceding just 4, that's 0.26 per game.

When you thought the drama of Plymouth's magnificent consistency, Ipswich's astonishing run in and Sheffield Wednesday's unlikely collapse was enough for one season, think again. Sheffield Wednesday's play-off campaign was absolute madness as they came back from a 4-0 defeat in semi-final leg one at Peterborough, winning the second leg 5-1 and going through to the final on penalties. The Owls then secured promotion with their last breath at Wembley as Josh Windass headed home to break the hearts of Barnsley in the 123rd minute of the match.

As you can see all three promoted sides have been on a hell of journey to get to the Championship but, as much as I love the story, that's all history and fond memories for the three fanbases. It means nothing when we reach week one of the ten month rollercoaster ride that is a season in English football's second tier. You'll be pleased to note that all three clubs have been typically on brand during the preseason so far and things are looking as follows:

PLYMOUTH - SCHUMACHER THE KEY
Plymouth are as ever quietly and efficiently going about their business. Their excellent manager Stephen Schumacher was linked with plenty of other jobs but in the here and now all vacancies are filled and Argyle still have maybe their biggest asset. They seem to be strengthening from the back with another keeper added in Conor Hazard and three defenders, Lewis Gibson, Julio Pleguezueo and Kaine Kesler-Hayden.

Kesler-Hayden joins on loan from Aston Villa and we'll likely see more of the same with loans, a massive strength for Plymouth during their League 1 title win. The other cornerstone for Argyle last season was their home form. Expectations will obviously need lowering up at Championship level, but the point remains that Home Park needs to stay the metaphorical fortress it was last year.

IPSWICH - ALL ABOUT MOMENTUM
At Ipswich the club are blessed with a little more financial muscle than their two promoted counterparts and last season's strategy seems to be continuing into this one. Kieran McKenna's side was blessed during the last twelve months with the arrivals of Leif Davis, Nathan Broadhead and Harry Clarke.

All young players brought in for decent money who had come through at clubs higher up the ladder and with a point to prove. It looks as though the majority of the side responsible for that explosive run in last season will be retained with two more young hungry players arriving in Jack Taylor and George Hirst.

In terms of infrastructure and stability Ipswich are probably the best set of the three promoted teams and any continuation of the momentum from the end of last season might see them looking up the table rather than down it.

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY - IT'S CHAOS!
And finally at Sheffield Wednesday, absolute chaos! Having steered them through the storm that was League 1 promotion last season, manager Darren Moore shockingly left the club after a fall out with owner Dejphon Chansiri.

Since the parting of the ways Mr Chansiri has been outspoken on Moore's departure at every opportunity, including the press conference unveiling his replacement Xisco Munoz. Xisco was typically calm and measured during the conference but it's all a bit quiet in terms of transfer activity so far at Hillsborough.

Wednesday were a giant of a club at league one level and immediately became one of the biggest at Championship level, that won't matter though if the current level of chaos makes things too difficult for their new manager to work in.

In short, League 1 is giving the Championship three very different clubs with three different stories and angles of attack for the Championship season. All three sets of fans will be optimistic that they'll remain Championship clubs for the foreseeable future, history tells us at least one will be disappointed.

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