Sky Bet Championship prediction 2014-15

The new season is back and so is Behind The Goal. It's the third season of your favourite football blog. Thank you for reading my posts last season, or if you are a new reader, welcome aboard.

The Sky Bet Football League kicks off this weekend, and as always, the race for promotion should be hotly contested. No fewer than 18 of the 24 clubs have played in the Premier League at some point, and a similar number will head into the campaign with genuine hopes of troubling at least the play-off places in the spring.

The three teams relegated last season are all in pole position to bounce straight back, with none of those sides having to make drastic changes. Fulham, Cardiff City and Norwich City will be in the mix and ought to finish in the play-off places with little fuss. All three of them will fully expect that they can bounce straight back via automatic promotion.

But of those, it is Fulham who are most proving that the parachute payments from the drop can now fund a promotion campaign rather than protect a club against further demotions, as has been the case in the past. Felix Magath's men will now be led by last season's Championship top scorer Ross McCormack, who moves to Craven Cottage for a second-tier record £11 million. He threw goals in for fun last year in an average Leeds United team, and he should continue where he left off, and my opinion, help the Cottagers bounce straight back to the Premier League in style.

Of last May's beaten play-off teams, Wigan Athletic are best placed to challenge again, although Derby County and Brighton and Hove Albion also have retained the squads needed to go close. After last season's poor start, not helped by their Europa League campaign, Wigan rallied to a top-six finish, and were unlucky not to beat Queens Park Rangers in the semi-finals. A better start, and maybe Uwe Rosler will get the Latics back this time.

As for my club, Nottingham Forest, to say this last week before the big kick-off has been a rollercoaster ride is somewhat of an understatement, and possibly worth a blog post longer than this one all by itself. In a nutshell, the controversial sales (and loans back) of Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow to Newcastle United paid for the transfer fees of Michail Antonio from Sheffield Wednesday, and Britt Assombalonga from Peterborough United, the latter for a club record fee of in excess of £5 million.

Those additions, plus the recruitments of the likes of Matt Fryatt, Michael Mancienne, Lars Veldwijk and Chris Burke make us far stronger in depth than last year, when we limped home in a disappointing 11th place. Wishful thinking maybe, but a play-off place is the least I expect this season. I will play safe and not put us any higher than 6th though. I daren't predict we will finish above Derby County, although there will be very little separating both teams this time around. I'll be at the City Ground on Saturday  for Stuart Pearce's first game as manager against Blackpool; needless to say the atmosphere will be something special as a genuine club legend returns.

At the bottom, I am hardly going out on a limb in tipping Blackpool for the drop. What has been allowed to happen at Bloomfield Road is a disgrace, and the fans deserve better than to enter a league season with barely more than eleven players to play in it. Newly promoted Brentford may find the step up one too far, and can Charlton Athletic defy the odds with another late season revival? Possibly not, given their manager Jose Riga left, ironically to Blackpool, and they have a newcomer to English football in charge in the shape of Bob Peeters. Their young squad may just lack the quality to get over the line this year.

Last season I correctly called two of the relegation places, and I was right in predicting Queens Park Rangers' promotion, although I did think it would be automatic. In the interest of fairness I should also point out that I had runners-up Burnley down in 18th place before a ball had been kicked, so it's not all doom and gloom if I put your team towards the bottom.

Here is the BTG Championship table prediction:

1. Fulham

2. Wigan Athletic
3. Cardiff City
4. Norwich City
5. Derby County
6. Nottingham Forest
7. Ipswich Town
8. Blackburn Rovers
9. Brighton and Hove Albion
10. Middlesbrough
11. Reading
12. Wolverhampton Wanderers
13. AFC Bournemouth
14. Bolton Wanderers
15. Watford
16. Birmingham City
17. Leeds United
18. Rotherham United
19. Huddersfield Town
20. Sheffield Wednesday
21. Millwall
22. Charlton Athletic
23. Brentford
24. Blackpool

Where do you think your team will finish? Have I got your boys in the right place? Whether you agree or disagree leave a message or Tweet me @adamgray50

The Behind The Goal Awards 2013

Another season of English football is nearly over, and what a year it has been. Manchester United won their 13th Barclays Premier League title, and 20th championship overall, in Sir Alex Ferguson's final year as Old Trafford boss. Wigan Athletic stunned Manchester City to win the FA Cup, yet were relegated just three days later, and the car crash that has been Queen's Park Rangers' season has kept us watching, sometimes through our fingers, as their campaign went from bad to worse. In the Football League, Cardiff City proved that red really is a lucky colour by romping to the Championship title, and the ups and downs went right down to the wire, nowhere more so than at Griffin Park, Brentford, where Doncaster Rovers won League One in spectacular circumstances.

It has also been the debut season of Behind The Goal. It has been enjoyable to write my thoughts and feelings of the season's big moments, and I have read your comments, some I have agreed with, some not so much, but they are all appreciated and your support means a lot.  I thought I would end the season with what I hope will become my annual BTG Awards. You may or may not agree with the winners but I would love to hear why. Send a message at the bottom of the page or Tweet me @adamgray50.

Player Of The Year
Nominations: Robin van Persie, Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, Michu, Christian Benteke, Juan Mata.

I know Bale won the PFA awards, but for me my winner has been the difference between his team winning and losing the league title. At the start of the season there may have been doubts as to whether he was the right signing for his team, but there never was for me. The winner is Robin van Persie.

Signing Of The Season
Nominations: Robin van Persie, Michu, Christian Benteke, Eden Hazard, Dimitar Berbatov, Philipe Coutinho

For the same reasons as above, this signing practically won the league by itself, as I predicted it would in August. The winner is Robin van Persie.

Premier League Rookie Of The Year
Presented to the player playing his first season in the top flight.
Nominations: Christian Benteke, Michu, Eden Hazard, Rickie Lambert, Matthew Lowton, Morgan Schneiderlin.

No doubt all of these players have been excellent additions to the Premier League. many players struggle to adapt to the speed and the relentlessness of the English game, especially strikers, which is why the award has gone where it has. This man broke his team's single-season goals record, and has put himself in the shop window for a summer move to a bigger club potentially. The winner is Christian Benteke.

Goal Of The Season
Nominations: Matthew Lowton (Aston Villa v Stoke), Robin van Persie (Man Utd v Aston Villa), Loic Remy (QPR v Wigan), Gareth Bale (Tottenham v West Ham), Luis Suarez (Liverpool v Newcastle)

For pure technique, and the largely forgotten assist by Wayne Rooney which was one of the most accurate you will ever see, the winner is Robin van Persie's volley against Aston Villa in the game which secured United's title.

Manager Of The Year
Nominations: Andre Villas-Boas, David Moyes, Michael Laudrup, Rafael Benitez, Sam Allardyce, Sir Alex Ferguson

All of these managers have done wonders for their teams in differing circumstances, but there's only one winner I could name. This man has taken what some percieve to be a poor Manchester United team to another title. He has won everything possible, but now he has a BTG award to his name before his well-deserved retirement. The winner is Sir Alex Ferguson.

Flop Of The Year
Nominations: Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero, Chris Samba, Joe Allen, Scott Sinclair, Pavel Pogrebnyak

For every good signing, there are always a few bad ones. The fact that three of my nominees play for the same club sums up how wrong it is possible to get transfers. QPR's relegation is not down to just one player, but the winner of this award is the one man which sums up what went wrong at Loftus Road this season the most. So bad in fact, that I may even rename the award in his honour next year. The winner is Jose Bosingwa.

OMG! Moment Of The Year (sponsored by Joey Barton)
Nominations: Suarez's bite on Ivanovic, Brentford v Doncaster, Watford v Leicester, Ben Watson's Cup final winner, Bayern beating Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate.

I would like to think I have seen it all in football, but the winner of this award genuinely left me speechless watching Sky's Gillette Soccer Saturday coverage. For sheer unbelievablity of the situation, the winner is the last minute of Brentford v Doncaster Rovers. You all know what happened, but here it is again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKyR4f9ylEY