It’s going to be a long, tough season I can predict that much.
Perhaps it’s just a result of finishing so low last season, but it’s not like we can look to any games and say ‘they are definitely easy’, every game is going to be a tough one for us, but let’s give it our best and try to analyse how the season could unfold.
Blues saw their Championship fixtures released this morning, and once you’ve gone through all the important dates like first game, last game, Boxing Day and the ‘derbies’ with Coventry City, it’s time to take a step back and look at the fixtures on a much grander scale, trying to look at where our best chance of picking up ‘a run of wins’ is.
As I said, with the Championship’s moniker as one of the toughest leagues in the world, there’s not going to be that one month when you can picture going unbeaten, even a stretch in November where we play promoted sides Coventry City, Wycombe Wanderers and Luton Town who struggled last season is interrupted by both an international break and a game against recently relegated AFC Bournemouth.
Will fans be in grounds by the end of the year?
Yes
No
Just a reminder that no matter how much you think you might be out of the woods in this division, there’s always going to be someone sneaking around the corner ready to pounce and give you a tough game.
One additional word of warning though, I am really not looking forward to the end of the season, as we face four teams in the form of Nottingham Forest, Derby County, Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers, all of whom finished in the top eleven last season.
Let’s just hope we pick up enough points before that we’re secure in what we’re fighting for, be it promotion or (more than likely) safety, because I could honestly see a repeat of what happened at the end of the last campaign.
What worries me is the prospect of losing games early and getting into the rut we did in the last 9 games where morale fell to zero. Even a win in the pre season games would be a boost but hardly likely against the Foxes or Spurs.