It may be the start of a new era at the Den with Steve Lomas now in charge, but the Championship is as tough as ever and that become evident when the fixtures were released a week ago today.
The Lions have a difficult first five games of the season, but then again which game in this division isn’t difficult?
‘Wall will though play three of the teams likely to be in and around the drop zone come the end of the season – Yeovil, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield all in August.
The season starts with a potential banana skin at home to newly promoted Yeovil Town. This game will be seen as a 50/50 one, will the newly promoted team still be on a high from the following season, or will the occasion of opening day in a new division be too much for them?
The following weekend sees the Lions take their first trip of the season, to take on Ipswich Town at Portman Road. Last season nearly turned into a disaster for the Tractor Boys as they faced relegation in the first half of the season, but former Wolves and one time Millwall manager Mick McCarthy came in and steadied the ship to guide them to a respectable position. With a full pre-season under the McCarthy regime, who knows where they could end up.
The next game sees the Lions host Huddersfield at the Den. Last Season Huddersfield spent decent money in this division and also used the loan market quite well to bring in the likes of James Vaughan and Jermaine Beckford to help keep them up. They will very likely push on this coming summer and looking to consolidate in the league. With signings like Jon Stead and Adam Hammill already joining the club, they could easily do that.
Perhaps a positive is that ‘Wall’s final two games of August are away from home. Firstly the Lions will make the trip to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday were one of a number of clubs who stayed up on the final day last season, they will be hoping to avoid that drama once again.
Last season showed how tight the Championship really is, the Yorkshire club scored a 90th minute winner in each game against ‘Wall, and the extra four points from those two games pretty much kept them up.
August finishes off with a trip to the seaside to play Brighton & Hove Albion. Losing play off semi-finalists to Crystal Palace means they will very likely spend big in the summer. No matter who the manger is of course as Gus Poyet was controversially sacked this week. But if rumours are correct and that he thought a £10million budget was not enough to be promoted, maybe it was time to go.
The start of the season will be vital to Lomas as he will have some sections of fans on his back no matter what, the last thing he wants is a poor start to the season and ‘Wall having to look up at the rest of the table.
COYL
[ad_pod id=’writer-1′ align=’right’]