Season Preview 2006/07

Last updated : 19 August 2007 By Andy Beill
1. Are you happy with how the summer's gone (pre-season, transfers etc)? What does the season have in store for you?
There's been upheaval within the club after changing manager, but on the field we've not seen much difference yet. The new boss is assessing what he's got before ringing in the changes. We sold centre back Leon Cort for a club record fee (£1.25m) but brought in a good replacement (Michael Turner) for a snip of the price, and Sam Ricketts and Dean Marney sound like good signings too. It might not be the end of our transfer dealings, though we do have a number of players returning from injury to add to the squad in the coming weeks.

2. Does the manager have your backing?
There's a lot of optimism over our new man Phil Parkinson, and he seems the opposite of Peter Taylor in many ways... which is fine by us if it gets results. We're all behind him at the moment, and hopefully he'll be given time to settle in. We begin with some tough away games, so we'll have to be strong at home to get off to a good start.

3. Who'll be your stars - the players to watch out for?
Our club record signing Dean Marney, who joined from Tottenham this summer, is a very exciting prospect. England Under-21 international John Welsh should partner him in midfield, and has looked very promising over pre-season. Don't expect to put many past Boaz Myhill - one of the top English goalkeepers around.

4. Who'll be the boo-boy?
Signings from the previous regime such as Mark Lynch, Keith Andrews and Darryl Duffy are yet to live up to expectations, and need to turn it on if they keep other players out of the team.

5. Where will you finish in the table?
We're looking to build on last season's finish of 18th, and hopefully see sight of the top half of the table. That doesn't seem unrealistic, and if things are going wrong, we have the money to strengthen in the January transfer window.

6. Who'll go up? (List three teams in order)
West Brom, Birmingham, Norwich

7. Who'll go down? (List three teams in order)
Colchester, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley