[craigj]

Hot Shot Saints to fire into Championship


Onto league one, where I’m hopefully Southampton can get back up into the championship now they don’t have the points penalty they had last year. Southampton have plenty of firepower in the side, and their main man Rickie Lambert is sure to fire again, having totalled a very impressive 30 league goals last season. There not a one man team though, Lee Barnard joined Southampton in January and made a big impact towards the end of last season. He scored 9 goals for Southampton, to add to the 15 goals he got for Southend before his move. With these two paired together you do fear for some of the weaker league one sides. Just when you think it can’t get any worse for the opposition Adam Lallana, a creative midfielder also knows where the net is looks destined for a big season. He managed an impressive 15 goals from midfield last season. Providing Southampton can hang on to these key players I can’t see anyone else being able to challenge them for the league title this year.

The rest of the league looks wide open to me, and I couldn’t really give one team as a threat to Southampton. Sheffield Wednesday have a decent squad, although they have thrown together a number of players and it could take a while for them to gel. They are also at the moment lacking a recognised goalkeeper. Plymouth have kept a core from the side that got relegated last year, and have quietly gone about their business bringing in a few free transfers. They could be helped by going down with Sheffield Wednesday as all eyes are on Wednesday and there seems to be no pressure on Plymouth to bounce back. The same could be said about Peterborough, who also dropped down from the championship. Like Plymouth they have kept a core together and quietly gone about their business adding a few free transfers through the summer.