Don Goodman believes that there's a question mark over Watford's credentials to secure promotion this season.

The Hornets have made a decent start to life back in the Championship after being relegated to the second tier over the summer.

Since then the Hertfordshire side have been largely impressive and find themselves sitting in fifth place as we enter the hectic Christmas period.

While they're firmly in the mix, the Watford hierarchy took the decision that they should be challenging for automatic promotion with the team currently four points off the top two.

As a result they decided to sack Vladimir Ivic as head coach and replace him with Xisco Munoz.

The challenge for the Spaniard will be to secure promotion this term, but while Watford are firmly in the mix, Goodman believes that Norwich City, Bournemouth and Brentford are possibly in a stronger position.

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Speaking on the Sky Sports EFL Podcast, Goodman said: “The three relegated clubs plus Brentford set the benchmark this year and I’ll be surprised if all four of them aren’t in the top six.

“But the one I’d worry about the most is Watford.

“Vladimir Ivic came in with this remarkable reputation of defensive organisation and clean sheet after clean sheet and won titles which is brilliant but you can’t equate it to the Championship.

“It’ll be the same with Xisco Munoz.

“The one thing to point out from the Watford statement was that they were keen to point out that Xisco Munoz has an attacking philosophy.”

The Verdict

The Championship promotion race is going to be very exciting.

All of the relegated teams look more than capable of going straight back up, while Brentford also look like the real deal once again.

It will ultimately boil down to who can handle the pressure of the run-in and that will be very interesting to watch as it plays out.