LFW Season Preview 08/09 - Every Team Profiled
Wednesday, 6th Aug 2008 09:10

With hopes high that QPR can push for promotion this season it's the teams at the top end of the table that will attract most attention from Rangers fans in our annual jumbo season preview.

Every year David and myself undertake this task, and every year we vow never again. It all starts with such good intentions but before you know it you’re up at 3am trying to find something to write about Preston North End. I’d like to say this won’t be back next season, but it will be – if only because we’re masochists and we enjoy the e-mails from supporters of other clubs lambasting our opinions of their sides. In fairness, we do the same to other websites so we can hardly complain.

If you’re going to draw any conclusions from this year’s marathon Championship preview it’s that David Price and myself are miserable gits. Crystal Palace were originally in the ‘mid table’ section of this preview but had to be bumped up because between us we’d only managed to pick six sides we thought might actually go quite well this season while we’ve condemned eight to a season of relegation struggle and been less than complementary about the remaining nine sides in the middle.

The beauty of the whole thing is that everybody has an opinion, and nobody knows for sure. We can’t even agree ourselves – the Birmingham preview would look very different if I’d written it while I’m sure David would have written the Derby and Reading previews differently had he been doing them.

For the record David reckons: top six Derby, Reading, QPR, Palarse, Sheff Utd and Brum. Bottom six in reverse order Blackpool, Saints, Burnley, Charlton, Donny and Barnsley. I fancy Birmingham and Sheff Utd for the top two, Ipswich, Wolves, QPR and either Bristol City or Palace to make the play offs and Southampton, Doncaster and Blackpool to be relegated.

In the end it’s a bit of fun, designed to try and inform QPR a bit about the opponents we’ll be facing and stick our necks on the line with a few predictions. One thing we do agree on, and this must be a first, we both think QPR will make the top six.

Promotion Pushers: (alphabetical order) Birmingham , Bristol City , Crystal Palace , Ipswich , QPR, Reading, Sheff Utd, Wolves Details

Mid Table Mediocrity: Burnley, Cardiff, Charlton, Coventry , Derby, Norwich, Nottingham Forest, Preston, Swansea . Details

The Dog Fight: Barnsley, Blackpool, Doncaster, Plymouth, Sheff Wed, Southampton, Watford Details

A reminder that ClubFanzine is offering the overall network winner of our Prediction League a free season ticket at their club for the 2009/10 season. It's simple to get involved, just sign up to the league by clicking here and signing in using your existing forum username. If you are not a member then you will need to register.

As a side issue LoftforWords also has a Super League in the Daily Telegraph's Championship Fantasy Football game and we're fast approaching 100 teams in our competition. So if you think you know your Championship football get involved and pick your team by clicking here. Once your team is selected and registered enter it into the super league called LoftforWords - password loftforwords. The winner of this gets a firm pat on the back.