The opening weekend of the Sky Bet Championship season continues on Saturday when the bulk of the fixtures take place on a day where 18 teams begin their campaign, each striving for three points which will get them off to the ideal start.
As with all Championship Saturday’s we have a match on TV to enjoy and the other matches will all have regular updates on the various score programmes on TV not to mention the club social media accounts.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated, UK TV in brackets)
Blackburn Rovers v Queens Park Rangers
Blackpool v Reading
Cardiff City v Norwich City
Hull City v Bristol City
Luton Town v Birmingham City
Millwall v Stoke City
Rotherham United v Swansea City
Wigan Athletic v Preston North End
Middlesbrough v West Bromwich Albion (17.30 – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
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Big Matches
We have to wait until the final match of the day for the TV game to come around but when it does two promotion chasers will meet at the Riverside when Middlesbrough and West Brom look to make a positive start to the season. We have one relegated team beginning their Championship existence on Saturday when Norwich City start their bid for an immediate return to the Premier League with a trip across the Severn Bridge to take on Cardiff City.
Best of the Rest
The highest team in action from last season on Saturday are Luton Town. They have something of a revenge mission on their hands when they host a Birmingham City who won 5-0 at Kenilworth Road last season. Two of the three promoted teams get their return to the Championship underway on Saturday when Rotherham United welcome Swansea City to the New York Stadium while Wigan Athletic welcome local rivals Preston North End to the DW Stadium. Two sides who looked good for promotion midway through last season only to fade away get another campaign started when Blackburn Rovers welcome Queens Park Rangers to Ewood Park.
Betting
After picking up a winner on the opening night of the season I’ll look to follow it up with just the one bet which comes on my own team Luton Town, who I have already said I expect to go well this season. I expect them to go very well on Saturday when they host Birmingham City because they are full of motivation for revenge after losing 5-0 and 3-0 to the Blues last term. It wasn’t just the defeats which irked Luton but the fact they never showed up in either game.
So much is different now. Birmingham have a new rookie manager while Luton are set to go again under Nathan Jones. The Hatters have made a number of astute signings and look so much better than they did this time last year. This fixture took place early last season when Luton had defensive injuries due to a bout of Covid in the camp. That wasn’t the reason they lost. They weren’t at it on the day but the injuries contributed to the margin of victory. There are no such troubles this season and with the likes of Cauley Woodrow and Carlton Morris looking to begin life in orange in style there is motivation and quality waiting to prove itself. It all points to a home win against a Birmingham side who look to have stood still at best over the summer.
Tips
Back Luton Town to beat Birmingham City for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
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