EDITOR'S NOTE: Patrick Kinmartin's column, "PKs Premiership," does not run on Mondays when there are no Premier League matches the preceding weekend. In those instances, Kinmartin will cover other matters related to English football.

Tony Mowbray has to be feeling anxious at this point about a somewhat celestial return to the Premiership with his West Brom squad clearly the strongest performer at the top of the Championship table, but he can expect a difficult promotion push from competition in the top spot that has their own impressive motives for a golden ticket.
Watford looks redemption-primed after last season's embarrassing Prem stumble. Hornets manager Aidy Boothroyd always gave the hunch last season he and his organization would be better suited the next time they came up through the gate into the top flight, and that next time may be on the cusp of arriving.

Then there's the Bristol City darlings. Wigan set the nation on fire in 2005 with their hardly-mitigated rise from First Division to the top in three years, so now here goes nothing for Robins with the chance to cap a quicker -- and seemingly more improbable -- pauper-to-prince ascent.

First, they'll have to be one of these two automatic qualifiers from the existing three-way tie with Mowbray's Baggies and Boothroyd's Hornets. Flying well beneath the Prem radar per custom, the Championship title race without near the fanfare boasts more intrigue than the Arsenal-Manchester United scrap in several facets.

And as is also usually the case in these scenarios for what is a more glorious version of Major League Baseball's Triple-A setup, a manager is at the helm of the epic. Indeed, in many ways, steely Mowbray is the worthy star of this year's qualification gala.

Since taking over at West Brom for Bryan Robson in 2006, Mowbray has become known as a gruff face with the redeeming quality of knowing which offensive buttons ring in the goods. The Baggies have dominated the Championship's scoring categories over the past two seasons, mostly because of Mowbray's insistence on building West Brom's intentions around dynamic strikers Kevin Phillips, Diomansy Kamara and, particularly this season, young Ishmael Miller.

Who would have thought a former proud defender like Mowbray had it in him? The explanation is fairly simple: Not that most men wouldn't, but Mowbray will cut any corner if it means earning that proverbial Premiership payday.

It is, after all, the league that once embraced him. Several pundits credit Mowbray with initially elevating Middlesbrough onto that stage and the club has only matured into one of the more established members since.

Yeah, talk about a match made in Middlesbrough. Mowbray, born and raised in the area, battled in his youth career with the side to become one of its fearless leaders in a time of crisis. The club was on the verge of liquidation in 1986, when, while in the Fourth Division, gates at Ayresome Park, the Riversiders' stadium at the time, were found eerily padlocked by debtors as talks about a phase-out were on the verge of reality until the organization's consortium rallied.

Mowbray and his teammates were inspired. Such stigmas in English football's basement are only cured by winning -- a major reason for the nation's romance for all its footballing minnows -- and Boro was able to barrel through the three divisions before a peak-form Mowbray helped with the Prem lift in 1992.

Since then, minor coaching gigs domestically and his sultry turnaround work with Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League have gotten Mowbray to where he is today, right at the top of the Championship ladder for his second promotion race in his two years in charge at West Brom.

A little ironically, one of the two teams eager to knock him off the track is Robins, who have a Cinderella story of their own to author. Bristol City in the Prem this fall for the first time since 1979 would be nothing short of miraculous for the fan base that saw the home heroes in the First Division relegation zone as recently as 2005.

As evidenced most recently by Wigan, the quick leap through Championship affairs following qualification from the First Division is there to be had for those game enough for the task. It's tricky nonetheless. Following a thunderbolt charge through First Division, Luton Town went right to the top of the Championship during last season's first month. When the year ended, they were relegated back to the First Division in 23rd place.
The Robins have been charming in holding their position, but hardly convincing. Manager Gary Johnson has wrenched 13 wins out of his side despite a meager plus-3 goal differential; the Robins are only seventh in the league in scoring with 34 goals. Maybe that's a nod to the Johnson's known eye for defense, which has conceded just 13 goals in 13 home fixtures.

On the subject of numbers, it's an area where Boothroyd and Watford have been more favorable in regards to being so entrenched at the top. Watford's plus-10 goal differential is second only to West Brom's ripping plus-25, and the Hornets' 44 goals are second to the 56 piled up by the Baggies. The concern has come in both their meetings against fellow No. 1 qualification contenders, both at home at Vicarage Road, they lost to West Brom 3-0 and Bristol City 2-1.

This is a team that has had to, for better or worse, rely on guile from the get-go. The Hornets have the same cast that successfully made this venture two years ago and the abundance of experience appears to be paying dividends in the name of consistency.

(By the way, three Jamaican internationals remain trusty veterans of Boothroyd. What Fulham has become to the United States, Watford is developing into a similar role with Jamaica. Now if the Hornets can move on and accomplish bigger and better things upon promotion next year, the names Marlon King, Jobi McAnuff and Damien Francis will provide serious clout to a Jamaican side that might just be an asleep CONCACAF giant at the moment.)

Boothroyd, along with Mowbray and Johnson, knows by this point a cautionary eye has to be kept on Stoke and Charlton, the fourth- and fifth-place squads lurking behind within seven points and undoubtedly intent on riding a rush to one of the two automatic qualifiers.

In January, however, arguably the league's three most compelling promotion stories are in the middle of playing out at the top.

Patrick Kinmartin covers the English Premier League for 101soccer.com, you can contact him at PK@101soccer.com