The Championship gets underway this coming weekend with Nottingham Forest welcoming Millwall in the first game of the new league season. The London side, Millwall, did magnificently well to win the League One playoffs and get promotes last season. They probably didn’t expect to rise back throught the ranks as quickly as they did.
Meanwhile, Forest are veterans of the division, which really is a shame, as a side with their rich history really should be in the top division mixing it with the big boys. It is guaranteed to be an exciting game and is sure to be an interesting start to the new league season in England.
We’ve been waiting weeks for this moment, but now the football is back!
Nottingham Forest form
Forest were incredibly lucky to survive in the Championship last year. They flirted with relegation throughout the season and but ended up just about surviving.
This is the same club that produced famous nights at Europe’s top-level, who had Roy Keane as a star player and who had the one and only Brian Clough as their manager. They should have a much higher ambition than just about surviving in England’s top tier. That’s just not good enough for this club and they will be hoping this season will drastically.
Millwall form
The London side showed great heart and spirit in their promotion campaign last year. They defeated Bradford in the final of that game, but prior to that they got past Scunthorpe in an absolute thriller.
They will be determined to start the season well as they will not want to be caught up in another relegation tussle. We think they are ready to go onto the next level and become promotion challengers with people at the top.
They’ve made some solid transfers this season and they look like a completely different team that they were a couple of years ago when they got relegated from the Championship.
News
These two teams are going in the opposite direction, with Nottingham Forest struggling to stay in the second tier of the league. Meanwhile Millwall are looking upwards – they will be hoping to gain successive promotions and this is their starting point.
The Lions have managed to capture Jake Cooper from Reading. That transfer was a major coup and now the London side have one of the best defenders in the entire league. He got a three-year deal and that was a real signal of The Lions’ ambition.
It’s sad to see Forest fall from grace. They are better than they have looked and fans will feel like they are going through some sort of sick joke; their side should be challenging for Europe in the Premier League, not falling from grace in the second-tier.
Betting
Millwall’s momentum is entirely different from Nottingham Forest’s. One of these teams is on an upwards trajectory, while the other seem to be caught in a serious rut. If Forest want to stem to the tide, they will have to start this season with much more momentum than they had last year.
We can only see one viable result though – an away win. The Lions are priced at 14/5 with Ladbrokes and we think that is an amazing price.