Walton in WhoScored’s Championship Team of the Season
Friday, 8th May 2026 14:08

Blues keeper Christian Walton has been named in WhoScored’s Sky Bet Championship Team of the Season.

Walton, the only Town player to make the XI, is ranked at 6.8 by the statistics website used by the EFL for their Teams of the Week. The 30-year-old was nominated for the April Player of the Month award but missed out to Portsmouth’s Adrian Segecic.

“Christian Walton has quietly been one of the most effective goalkeepers in the Championship this season,” writes the EFL website.

“He finished with the second-most clean sheets in the league, narrowly missing out on the Golden Glove to Coventry’s Carl Rushworth, who played nine more games.

“He ranks third in the league for goals prevented with an xGOT difference of 5.55, underlining his ability to stop high-quality chances.

“His 98 saves place him 14th overall, but with a 73 percent save rate and 2.6 saves per game, efficiency has been key.

“He also ranks inside the top 10 for saves from shots outside the box and has saved one of three penalties this season.

“All three of Walton’s best performances came away from home, highlighting his reliability under pressure.”

Those games were at Millwall, 8.5 rating, Watford in which he saved a penalty, 8.0, and West Brom, 7.7.

Walton came into the team in October after Alex Palmer suffered a calf injury, coming on as a sub in the 3-0 home defeat to Charlton.

He went on to keep 16 clean sheets in 36 Championship starts, second in the division behind Coventry’s Rushworth, who played 46 games. Walton’s clean sheet percentage was 43.2 to Rushworth’s 37.

Also in WhoScored’s XI are summer Blues target Hayden Hackney, who enjoyed an impressive season with Middlesbrough, and Millwall winger Femi Azeez, the subject of Town bids in January.

Photo: TWTD

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Number22 added 14:12 - May 8 Charlton CB better than O'Shea?
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ellaandred added 14:38 - May 8 Only one Coventry player! Data driven rubbish.
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Stephbgb added 15:19 - May 8

Says everything we already knew about Walton. Solid, consistent at Championship level, but hasn't stood out in any particular attribute. The classic example of a "does you a good job over the course of the season" kind of player.

Is he "good enough to do a job" in the Prem? Probably - though we obviously need more 'matchwinner' caliber players across the team. I'm torn on this one between the need to improve where we can, vs not making more changes than necessary.

superblues9 added 15:24 - May 8 Lucky to still have him tbf as keep going out buying replacements for him and him playing 2nd fiddle for parts of season hladky and palmer in particular
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BlueSkies added 15:28 - May 8 So Coventry run away with the league and Town are second - both automatically promoted, and only provide 2 players out of 11? What a load of bs. Totally agree, ellaandred.
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DifferentGravy added 15:47 - May 8 Oshea should be in there. What is Cooper doing in there!? Spends each game fouling the opposition.
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HatStand added 16:16 - May 8 Well done Christian.
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tractor_lady added 16:17 - May 8 Ridiculous stats, 14th on number of saves made? hmmm maybe our defence meant he didn't face as many shots as others
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armchaircritic59 added 18:02 - May 8

Well, as I know full well, not everyone loves data even though it just deals wth facts not guesswork, opinions or anything else that's subjective. I use data a lot and the very site mentioned above is one I use a lot. There are times when data should be used along with the " eye test " such as when contemplating a player signing, using data alone for something like that isn't a great idea.

On that basis I say very well done to Christian, and proof that keeping your head down and waiting for a chance can pay dividends.

Tractor lady, you maybe unwittingly have hit the bullseye with that and it's correct! Nothing ridiculous about it as it turns out. Here's another little data fact if anyone wants to work out what it may mean, I'm sure there will be different opinions and it's not for me to tell others what to think. ITFC finished rock bottom of the Championship season just ended on tackles made per match.

runningout added 19:08 - May 8 surprised the Swansea striker not in
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armchaircritic59 added 20:11 - May 8

Oh and the fact that there's a shortage of players from the 2 clubs automatically promoted means data is a load of tosh is incorrect. If you investigate the ratings you'll see that what has happened is that quite a number of players from both sides are high up on the respective lists, just not at the very top. A triumph of high level consistency over having one outstanding individual you might say And if there's one thing that Coventry in particular were very good at, apart from the little meltdown they had in winter, was consistency. It's what won them the title, not having the very best players in a number of positions.

RIPbobby added 06:03 - May 9 The reason the top two teams are not represented so much is due to squad rotation. Simple as that.
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bluesman added 06:13 - May 9 One little thing this data ignores (and indirectly proves): football is a team game. So this so called best team is not a team. It’s just the eleven best sets of data. It would probably get beaten by any of the teams in the league.
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Stato added 07:26 - May 9

Oshea wouldnt make the league 1 team of the year nrnver mind the champ. In the first half of the season he was truly dreadful but was a lot better after xmas. He eas lucky to have Matusiwa protecting him but in the prem he will get found out like hi did last timr. Not tall enough, can't pass quickly or accurayely enough and won't man mark from corners because not strong enough

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captaincrunch added 15:09 - May 9

Guys things are not as simple as they may seem. You can be the best team in the league and not have a players in the team of the season. These are 2 very different things and there is only some correlation. You can have all 11 out of 11 or 0 out of 11 it all depends on the other teams. It may blow some of your minds but you could finish bottom and have players in this line up. Not likely at all but possible. Of course these players are picked based on different factors which often have nothing to do with the stats. Even if the stats are to be used you get a situation as decsribed above where our keeper didnt save that many but it doesnt take into account how many saves there could have been and what kind of saves they were. Short version is don't try and make sense of it; its just meant to be a bit of fun. The data is limited and the decisions are subjective.

armchaircritic59 added 18:05 - May 9 bluesman, I think there's every chance you're correct there. It is literally as you state, just a collection of players rated top of their various positions, it is not a team in the literal sense.
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