sky sports championship preview

[crab man 180]

pointless but an interesting read nonetheless with what seems to be an impossible league to predict sky sports have given us a predicition of 16th for this season.I think realistically, we will end up around that but I live in hope that we can surprise few people and mount a serious promotion push...anyway heres a link... http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11709_6284943,00.html

[CanaryJames 0]

Not a very in-depth/insightful preview!

Mine''s better (albeit with perhaps a slightly rose-tinted viewed of ourselves!) than that!

I''ll post a link to it when it''s finally done. Got the last fraction of it left to write...

[Yellow Rose of Texas 0]

I''ll take that. Not as the position we will finish up in, but as the position everyone else thinks that we will finish up in.

[Punting Canary 0]

The link below gives Sporting Index''s predicted Championship points for the season.  It shows how tight the league is but also suggests to me there isn''t a team out there to be scared of and that there won''t be a runaway winner like Newcastle this season.http://www.sportingindex.com/spread-betting/football-domestic/championship/championship-points-2010-2011/?meetingid=3491323&split=1

[I am a Banana 0]

Most places think of us at around 16th. I fancy a 10-14th finish myself though [y]

[Jason Shackells limp Tackle 0]

It never fails to amaze me at how these ''predictions'' are generated. How they can call on where Pompey are going to finish is beyond me but I very much doubt it''ll be there; at the moment they have can''t field a first eleven. Both Burnley and Hull in the play-offs? Apart from his stint at Scunny, Brian Laws has been an unmittigated failure (I think he''ll be the first manager sacked) and Nigel Pearson hasn''t really a stable platform to work on at Hull. Cardiff in the play-offs also? Not allowed to sign players and an unhappy Chopra and no Whittingham... They only ones that appear to look OK are Boro'' and Forest. I also agree with the bottom 3.

[Big Duncs Bloody Shirt 0]

Don`t let these numpties get to you folks. Quite frankly these pre season predictions are meaningless ... My own preference is to stay under the radar for as lons as possible, take six points off the inbreds and sneak a play-off place! Easy as that! OTBC

[Canariesworld 0]

Fair prediction for us I think. Some of the others are questionable though: can''t see Boro winning the league.

OTBC

[Sideshow Tim 110]

just remember where Mark Lawrenson predicted where we would finish last season!

Although very interesting to read it doesn''t mean jot

[Bovril 268]

I think we are generally regarded as the dark horses this year...meaning were not really off the radar, don goodman had us to go up with forest and bristol city I believe...

I personally think boro and city will take it with forest struggling to get a season like last...

Im confident of a top-halve finish and would be more confident of a play-off finish if I trusted the defence and keeper a little more

[WOTB 0]

why is everyone tipping Boro,  I know they have spent a lot of money but most of them are Celtic reserves and Strachan hasn`t got the best record in England.I reckon Sheff Utd will be up there somewhere and Burnley have a few quid in the bank if they need to spend in January. QPR well it depends how many managers they have this season.I`d certainly have use better than 16th

[Jacko 0]

To be honest Blackpool last year showed just how crazy this league is and why you cant really call it. I think virtually everyone myself included believed they would go down. The rest is history. It just shows how vital a good start might be because confidence is the only thing which will separate a lot of teams in this league in my opinion.

[I am a Banana 0]

DI''D watch out for Bristol city(coppel is a genius in the champ) and reading(mcdermott seems to have settled the ship)

[Freethorpe Canary 0]

Staying clear of relegation should be the priority, so all going well 16th is a realistic position. I propose things are so tight that the addition of a few loan gems could see us further up the table towards the play-offs, but on the other hand some bad luck with injuries could see us go straight back down.

[mrs miggins 0]

I am 100% sure we won''t go down

[CanaryJames 0]

http://www.theblogpaper.co.uk/article/jimbob0305/sports/02aug10/championship-preview-20102011

As promised earlier. Not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but more of a read than SKY''s attempt!

Only very slight bias towards us as well!

[jimidack 0]

The weird thing is, most people who wrote about Norwich in the comments section seem to believe we will be higher up! It''s weird how some people see us, a couplw of them are Leeds fans which surprises me more!

[wilw6 0]

IMO we''ll finish top half, & with a bit of good fortune the play offs could be within reach.

[kdncfc 0]

I don''t think there''s any team that particularly stands out this year, many seem to be tipping Boro but I don''t really see anything that makes them stand out from the rest. If Forest can deal with the disappointment of going close last season they could well be the team to beat but other than that there is at least a dozen teams with a realistic chance of going up including us. We may have just come up but plenty of teams have come up from league 1 and had a very good first season in the Championship and let''s not forget we are at least a Championship level club now back at the minimum level we should be at.My main concern is our defence, with Whitbread looking like he''s going to spend more time in the treatment room than on the pitch we look to be a bit thin on the ground in that department. I think Ward will be ok once he is fully fit but Nelson will be found wanting against teams with pacy strikers and I don''t see our goals against column being to healthy with the defence we''ve got. Still think we will regret not signing a replacement for Holt as I don''t see us being as potent with a Jackson/Martin partnership as we would be with a big lump playing alongside Martin or Jackson.I think we will finish somewhere in the top half of the table with much depending on how much if any cash we have avaliable in January, if a takeover or major investment materialises before the end of the year and funds are avaliable we could finish nearer the top. As things are at this moment in time I see us finishing around tenth.

[ref89 0]

Mid table would be a great end of season achievement for a club that was in shreds until Lambert came in.However, looking at the quality being shown by our midfield and strikers in terms of pace, passing and movement, I think we could be under-estimated.  Good.