Birmingham briefly top a table for the first time in over 5,000 days

Birmingham went top of a league table on Friday for the first time since October 27 2008.

John Eustace’s side beat Huddersfield to end a drought of 5,030 days – almost 14 years – which was the third-longest among clubs in England’s top four tiers.

Stoke (April 27 2008) and Bradford (September 19 2008) are the only teams that have to look further back for the last time they finished a day top of the league.

Southampton, on the other hand, are bottom of a table for the first time in nearly 10 years, following a 4-1 defeat at Tottenham.

The Saints last propped up a division on November 9 2012 – 3,557 days ago.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the sides who have ended long spells without sitting top (or bottom) of any of England’s top four leagues this season.

Birmingham fans were relatively spoiled for success in the mid-to-late 2000s, winning automatic promotion to the Premier League twice in 2006-07 and 2008-09.

The latter campaign was the last in which they topped a league table – the Blues started the season with a run of just one defeat in 13 and went on to secure promotion behind Wolves.

Led by Alex McLeish, they finished ninth in their first year back in the Premier League but were unable to kick on from there.

The following campaign (2010-11) ended in relegation on the final day, with this season the 12th in a row that Birmingham have spent in the Championship.

Birmingham’s neighbours Walsall have started the season well in League Two, beating Hartlepool 4-0 and Newport 1-0.

The Saddlers are top of a division for the first time since New Year’s Day 2016, when five successive wins had propelled them to the League One summit.

Walsall ultimately missed out on automatic promotion by a single point, before losing in the