ONCE again it is that time of the year when football writers get out their crystal balls and try to predict what will happen in the coming season.

For some it is putting their reputation on the line, for others such as myself it is precisely this annual bout of soothsaying that has led to having no reputation at all – except for having an unerring ability to call it wrong season after season.

But when it comes to the 2012/13 Championship campaign I would suggest that even the most confident soccer pundit just leaves making predictions alone.

I am sure that even within the Town camp as they enter their first campaign in the second tier for 11 years, they will be looking at the fixture list feeling that almost with every game there is every reason to be optimistic they can win while accepting defeat is more than a possibility too.

Last season’s ups and downs seem to have left League I fairly simple to call – if Sheffield United don’t win it at a canter there is something wrong.

The Premiership also looks like finding the predictable three-way split of the half dozen pitching for the title and Europe, those who don’t have the clout to compete but are too savvy to go down and Wigan and their bunch of mates who will wrestle over managing to be in 17th place or above when the first week of May arrives.

But the Championship promises to be a roller-coaster ride and a half this term.

There are just so many factors to take into consideration.

For a start there are the mini-leagues in the north that on their own will be intriguing.

On the west of the Pennines the season will be littered with derbies between Blackburn, Bolton, Blackpool and Burnley with all them able to beat the other on their day.

The same applies this side of the hills, but perhaps even more so as Town face meetings with Leeds United, managed by former Galpharm boss Neil Warnock (pictured left), Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Hull City and Middlesbrough in a series of all-Yorkshire showdowns that will come around with frightening frequency over the campaign.

And that is the fever pitch of competition before even touching on the chances of the teams from the south and midlands.

Bolton and Leicester are the clubs fancied by the bookmakers, but who is to say that Chris Powell’s Charlton can’t follow the blueprint provided over the last two seasons by Southampton and Norwich.

It’s going to be a nail-biter!