CannyPunter.com

With the second round of games in the Championship having just kicked off earlier this evening, we thought it’d be a good time to look back at the opening weekend. First off, it wasn’t a good weekend for our predictions with two of our four selections, Wolves and Preston NE, being among the three drawn games.

After the opening round of games, Burnley sit proudly in first place thanks to a debut brace from Derry born Steve Jones against QPR. They’ll need to keep him in the side and banging them in like that to put themselves in with a chance of a playoff spot this year. QPR play Leeds United tonight in what will surely be a close game with plenty of chances, if their opening day form is anything to go by. Another Northern Irish man David Healy gave Leeds the points against Norwich last Saturday by converting from a spot kick, though by all accounts it was terrible finishing by Norwich that cost them the points. Leeds will need to strengthen up front if they’re going to contend for an automatic promotion spot.

Tonight, Norwich will hope to find the net against Preston, last seasons playoff favourites. Preston played out a dismal goal-less draw against ten man Sheffield Wednesday last weekend and be desperately hoping to improve on their performance and finishing. After the disappointment of last season, they’ll have been hoping to get off to a good start this time round.

At half time now, Sheffield Wednesday are one-nil down to Luton Town, who had a good opening day win against Leicester City and are comfortably ensconced in second place. Last years solid 10th place finish is a good platform for the Hatters to build on, with the additional stability provided by coach Mike Newell signing on for another four years they should be able to put in a good run and fight for a playoff sport at the very least.

The Baggies picked up tonight against Cardiff City where they left off on Saturday against Hull by going one up with three minutes. Though they’ve since been pegged back by the Blues and one-all it stands at half time. West Brom, having been relegated from the Premiership last term, will be hoping to bounce back and secure automatic promotion. While man for man, Birmingham’s squad probably shades it as the strongest in the division, they don’t have anyone of the calibre of John Hartson who at £500,000 is surely the bargin of the season. Harston will surely have his critics but I can’t see anyone else leading the line, holding the ball up and bringing teammates into the game like he will. And as he showed on opening day, he’ll knock a few goals in too.

That brings me to Birmingham, the bookies favourites to head straight back up. With a strong experienced squad they look set to do well but I’ve a suspicion that expectations may weigh on them this year. As a big club with a few years of Premiership exposure under their belt, surely everyone else in the division will be lining up to stick on on them. Brimingham make the long journey up to the Stadium of Light in the North East tonight and take on fellow relegatees Sunderland tonight.

Sunderland, now under the total control of chairman/manager Niall Quinn, will be hoping to stop the slippery slide begun under the reign of Quinn’s former teammate and manager, Mick McCarthy. Unfortunately for Quinn, Coventry battle back from one down last Saturday to extend their miserable run of defeats. He need to beat the bad defending habits picked up by his team out of them and quick if their ball watching and napping isn’t going to cost them more cruicial points.

Coventry have the night off tonight as they face Southampton tomorrow evening. Whereas Coventry snatched the points on the weekend, Southampton dropped two points by conceding late on against Derby. As a dark horse each way chance for many, a lot will be expected of Southampton this year, as befits a club with the sort of history and resources that they have. They’ll want a good run in the next few games to grow in confidence but it may be too big a leap for them this year to put themselves in contention for automatic promotion. They may scrape through for one of the final play off places though.

We’ll be keeping an eye on all the main contenders for the Championship crown over the coming weeks to see how the race for the Premiership pans out and we’ll hopefully have some more successful match picks next time round! :-)