6.55pm BST
Preamble
Birmingham City and Ipswich Town return to the Championship tonight, albeit from different directions, and possibly therefore in different moods. Birmingham slummed it in League One last season, racking up 111 points on their way to the second third-tier title in their history; meanwhile Ipswich, having reached the Premier League arguably ahead of schedule, won just four games all season and were cashiered back from whence they came.
Ipswich’s sorry fate won’t have any bearing on the ambitions of these two clubs. Town want to bounce back to the top flight immediately, and are the short-priced favourites to win this division; Birmingham fancy following in Ipswich’s footsteps, given the Tractor Boys were the last team to leap from League One to the Premier League with successive promotions, and they’re third-favourites in the race for glory. Everyone can work out how to stay in the Premier League when they get there.
An exciting way to begin the Championship season, then. The match kicks off at 8pm UK time, and if we can get through the entire evening without reference to either Tom Brady or Ed Sheeran that’ll also be great.
