Buzzin Championship Football

Former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips snatched an injury time winner against Sheffield United for his new club Birmingham City during the first game of the Championship season. The 35-year-old came off the bench and with seconds remaining he scored on the turn to earn his side a 1-0 victory.

Overall, Sheffield United will feel hard done by. They deserved at least a point from this game. In fact, they almost got it after Kevin Phillips had struck. Jon Stead hit the post immediately after, but the ball fell to safety and it wasn’t to be for the Blades.

To face Birmingham at St Andrews first game of the season was certainly a difficult task for Kevin Blackwell’s men, but they can take a lot of heart from their performance. In terms of football betting, they are still one of the promotion favourites in my view.

As for Birmingham, it will just be a relief to get the first win under their belts following relegation from the Premier League. They now have something to build on. Perhaps early season nerves can now be put to bed. They travel to administration threatened Southampton next and will fancy their chances of making it two wins out of two.

One thing for sure is that they have an excellent Championship striker in Kevin Phillips. He has a couple of seasons left in him yet at this level and there are not many Championship clubs that would turn down his services. He helped West Brom to promotion last season with 24 goals and I wouldn’t put it past him doing the same with Birmingham this season.

Alex McLeish has a lot of strikers at his disposal this season. James McFadden, Marcus Bent, Gary McSheffrey, Gary O’Connor and Kevin Phillips were all involved against Sheffield United. However, it is the latter - who was the match winner today - that I expect to be their main man as they look to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

After having a frustrating time in the transfer market searching for a striker, Cardiff City have signed Wolves forward Jay Bothroyd on a three-year deal. The 26-year-old will join the Bluebirds for around £300,000.

Like I said, it has been far more effort than it should have been for Cardiff boss Dave Jones to find a striker that is willing to come to the club. First of all, Cardiff lost

Robbie Fowler to Premier League side Blackburn, meaning the search for a replacement was on. Then they thought they had secured Marcus Bent’s signature, but the player decided to join Championship rivals Birmingham at the last minute.

The next twist was that Kenny Cooper – who plays up front for FC Dallas – took too long to complete his move to Ninian Park, so Dave Jones pulled the plug on the move. All this meaning, that the season was getting dangerously close and Cardiff were still short of strikers.

So, step up Jay Bothroyd. He is the man the Bluebirds have turned to. Chairman Peter Ridsdale has said that he is a ‘great acquisition’ for the club. He also hopes that Jay Bothroyd can for fill the potential he showed in the early stages of his career. This comes after a couple of seasons where the player has underachieved in terms of his performances. For example, last season he only hit the back of the net on four occasions for Wolves.

As for this season, in terms of Championship football betting, I don’t think Jay Bothroyd will be one of the favourites to lead the goal scoring charts. He has a lot to prove and should he go a few games without scoring at the beginning of his Cardiff career, the critics will start jumping on his back.  However, the fresh start allows him to regain his confidence and bag himself some goals as Cardiff push for promotion to the Premier League.

Last season’s Coca-Cola Championship race was closer than ever.  After Watford sprinting off to what seemed like an uncatchable lead, they began to leak goals and points come the Autumn.  And by Christmas it seemed like no one team was able to keep the lead.

Whether seen as a very tight exciting league or a scrappy league without any real outstanding talent, the addition of the three relegated Premiership teams - Reading, Derby & Birmingham, along with the three teams promoted from League One - Swansea, Nottm Forest & Doncaster, it looks likely to be another close call between many teams pushing for Premiership promotion who, with a few bad results, turning their sights to a relegation battle.

So who are my favourites for Premier League promotion?

I expected QPR to have made a few top signings by now, thinking their owners are gagging for promotion; and the appointment of Ian Dowie as manager may turn out to be a level headed choice, but it certainly isn’t going to attract any big name stars.

I’m not sure what is happening at Reading, though it looks like they are going to lose Nicky Shorey to the Premiership, along with striker Dave Kitson, who will be a big loss.

Both Derby & Birmingham are my favourites for promotion.  Not only have they added to their squads but both have relatively new managers that appear to have written off last season before it had finished, so as to concentrate on gaining promotion this season and starting afresh.

Both teams are going to be lead by strong attacking options.  Derby have splashed out on the striking partnership of Rob Hulse (from Sheffield United) and Nathan Ellington (loan from Watford), while Birmingham will have quality striking options as they have brought in Marcus Bent (Charlton) and Kevin Phillips (WBA) to fight for places with James McFadden, Cameron Jerome and Garry O’Connor.

Birmingham look like they have the strongest squad in the league, especially with the additions of Lee Carsley (from Everton) and the Dutch under-21midfielder Kemy Agustien on a season-long loan from AZ Alkmaar.

The Coca-Cola League season 2008/09 begins this Saturday at 12.45 when Birmingham take on Sheffield United and have the chance to go top from the very start.

Bristol City chairman Steve Lansdown has backed new signing Nicky Maynard to help the club win promotion this season. The young striker signed from Crewe Alexandra this week for a substantial fee of £2.25m and is expected to believer the goods for his new club.

Steve Lansdown believes that he could be the ‘missing link’ between Bristol City and the automatic promotion places. He also believes that the amount of money they spent on Nicky Maynard shows how far they have come as a club.

He’s not wrong. This time last year after winning promotion to the Championship, a look at the football odds would have told you they were expected to be relegated. Instead they only just missed out on promotion, losing in the play-off final to Hull.

The key to them going one better this season is quite simply – scoring more goals. Remarkably, they scored 34 fewer goals than West Brom last season and even Colchester United – who finished bottom – scored eight more goals than them. That maybe highlights the competitiveness of the Championship more than anything else, but Bristol City could certainly do with upping their goal tally. They can’t always rely on 1-0 victories.

It seems that Nicky Maynard is the man they believe will solve this problem. The 21-year-old striker – who attracted interest from Ipswich Town – scored 15 goals in League One last year and certainly arrives with a positive reputation. Whether he can score goals at Championship level remains to be seen, but I think it is clear he has the ability. He would have been brought up well at Crewe and will be relishing his new challenge. I presume he has an ambition to play in the Premier League one day, so this is the start of his journey to doing just that.

The big question is though – will he make it with Bristol City this season? Well, as much as I am unsure about their automatic promotion credentials, they certainly have a chance of securing a play-off spot. Should they do that, they will have as good a chance as anyone – it is a lottery at that stage after all!

One thing for sure is that it is not going to be easy. The Championship is stronger than ever and if Bristol City are to recapture the form that saw them finish fourth last season, they are going to have to up their game even further. Nicky Maynard will be hoping to help them do just that.

Coventry City chairman Ray Ranson has revealed that the club are closing in on the signing of right back Stephen Wright in the next couple of days. The man who started his career at Premier League side Liverpool is without a club following his release from Sunderland and is set to be handed a Championship lifeline by Chris Coleman.

Suggesting that the move is near completion, Stephen Wright is set to make an appearance for the Sky Blues when they take on Livingston tomorrow night. Should he impress in this game and the one against Kilmarnock on Saturday, he should complete his move to the Ricoh arena before the opening game of the season against Norwich City.

If Stephen Wright does sign on the dotted line, he will join Freddy Eastwood as a new arrival at the club. Speaking of the former Southend striker, I hope he does well this year. I don’t think he was given enough chances at Wolves to impress and at Coventry if he is given enough games – he will deliver. I am confident about that.

So what about Coventry’s hopes for the season? Well, according to the Championship football odds, they are more likely to get relegated than promoted. Considering they only avoided dropping to League One on the final day of last season – this is hardly surprising.

However, Chris Coleman is a good manager and he will be expecting a lot more from his team during his first full season in charge. The former Fulham boss will be expecting lots from the likes of Leon Best, Julian Gray, Elliot Ward and of course Freddy Eastwood. If these players perform to their maximum and a good team spirit is developed, then relegation shouldn’t be an issue.

Promotion talk is premature though and if I was to consider the outcome of Coventry’s season right now I would predict a mid-table finish. It will be an improvement on last year and considering how competitive the Championship is, that would be a good achievement for Chris Coleman’s men. In my opinion anyway. Whether Stephen Wright is part of this should become clear in the next few days.