1871Royals Season Preview Part Two
By Matthew Grant
July 31 2005
Part two of 1871Royals season preview covering Derby County, Hull City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City and Luton Town.
| SEASON PREVIEW 05/06- PART 2 |
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Derby County
Player To Look Out For - Grzegorz Rasiak 1871Royals Prediction - Play-Off contenders
Hull City Hull City secured back to back promotions after finishing runners up in League One last season. The goals of attacking midfielder Stuart Elliott was one of the main reasons why Hull finished where they did. There is also plenty of experience within the ranks with the likes of Nick Barmby, Junior Lewis and Robert Stockwell. Don't expect Hull to be in the thick of the relegation battle at the end of the season, more likely is a mid table finish consolidating their position in the Coca Cola Championship. Player To Look Out For - Stuart Elliott 1871Royals Prediction - Mid table
Ipswich Town Last season was one to forget for Ipswich fans, although finishing in third place, Ipswich missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season to Wigan Athletic and then fell at the semi final stage of the Play-Off's to eventual winners West Ham United. Although doing the hard work in the first leg earning a 2:2 draw at Upton Park Ipswich lost 2:0 in the second leg, resulting in at least another year in the Championship. The repercussions of missing out on promotion have been clear to see this summer with many of Town's star performers from the last few years departing, goalkeeper Kelvin Davis and midfielder Tommy Miller have moved to Sunderland, Shefki Kuqi has joined Blackburn Rovers and Darren Bent has moved to Charlton Athletic. Sam Parkin and Nicky Forster have joined Ipswich but it will be a tough ask for Joe Royle's new look squad to match or better last seasons finish. Player To Look Out For - Darren Currie 1871Royals Prediction - Top ten
Leeds United
Player To Look Out For - Rob Hulse 1871Royals Prediction - Play-Off's
Leicester City Following their relegation from the Premiership in the 03/04 season, Leicester City were hot favourites to bounce straight back at the first attempt. Things however did not turn out as expected, Leicester spent much of the season in the bottom half of the league and in October Micky Adams paid the price by being sacked with Craig Levein taking his place. Inconsistent form prevented Leicester from ever salvaging anything from their season and finished poorly in 15th position. Better things are expected next term, Levein has strengthened his squad with the capture of Nils-Eric Johansson and at the time of writing The Foxes have agreed a fee with Dundee for striker Steve Lovell. Player To Look Out For - Joey Gudjonsson 1871Royals Prediction - Top ten
Luton Town Luton took League One by storm last season running away with the League's championship. Not many people had given Luton a hope of making the top half come the end of the season let alone winning the League and next season The Hatters will have to prove the critics wrong again by avoiding the drop. Manager Mike Newell is unlikely to have much money to spend on new recruits leaving Bosman players the main source of new signings. Rowan Vine has signed for Luton after being on loan at the club for all of last season from Portsmouth. It is sure to be a tough season ahead for Luton and supporters may well expect in a tussle to remain in the Championship as the season draws to a close. Luton Town Ground Guide currently unavailable Player To Look Out For - Rowan Vine 1871Royals Prediction - Bottom three
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Last season Derby surprised many people by
reaching the Play-Offs
after finishing one place above the relegation zone the year before. Under the
guidance of George Burley The Rams blossomed thanks to the creativity of Inigo
Idiakez and the goals of Grzegorz Rasiak. However following the acrimonious
departure of George Burley this summer, Derby have appointed former Bolton
number two, Phil Brown as new manager. Andrew Davies has signed on a one year
loan from Middlesbrough and you can expect Derby to again challenge for the
Play-Offs next term.
Last
season saw a transition period for Leeds United Football Club, nearly a whole
new playing squad, a new manager and a new chairman halfway through the season.
As expected Leeds struggled to fill the Play-Off spaces throughout the season
and eventually finished in 14th position. Next season however the pressure will
be on manager Kevin Blackwell to deliver the goods. Blackwell has currently
signed four new recruits ahead of the new season, Ian Bennett, Steve Stone,
Daniel Harding and Eddie Lewis. With the players that Blackwell has at his
disposal, nothing less then a top six finish will be acceptable for the Leeds
United supporters.