Sky Sports pundit shares prediction for Luton Town’s clash with Birmingham City | OneFootball

The 2022-23 Championship season kicks off this evening when Huddersfield Town take on Burnley, and on Saturday afternoon it’s the turn of most of the rest of the division.

That includes last season’s play-off semi-finalists Luton Town, who pieced together a very impressive campaign – only to lose out to Huddersfield Town over two legs.

It was a year to be proud of for Nathan Jones’ men though, with the Welshman able to piece together a squad on a shoestring budget and crack the top six.

Quiz: Can you remember the score the last time Birmingham City played at these 26 stadiums?

1 of 26

Ewood Park?

1-0 L 2-0 L 3-0 L 4-0 L

The same could not be said for Birmingham City though, who are Luton’s opponents at Kenilworth Road this weekend, and they are going into the new campaign without Lee Bowyer in the dugout as he has been replaced by John Eustace.

There is still takeover uncertainty at St. Andrew’s, with Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez’s acquisition of a 21.64% stake in the club in the ‘very early stages’, but new faces have arrived at the Blues in the form of Auston Trusty, Przemysław Płacheta and a returning Dion Sanderson.

Former EFL midfielder David Prutton though does not think Eustace will be able to do enough to secure a point at least on his competitive debut as Birmingham manager, as he has predicted a 2-1 victory for the Hatters in his Sky Sports predictions podcast.

The Verdict

Luton fans will have every confidence going into the new season that they can replicate what happened in the previous campaign.

The Championship doesn’t look any stronger than it did a few months ago, and with some of the players that Nathan Jones has added to his squad, he will be pretty confident that the play-offs are more-than in reach next May.

Birmingham though will just be hoping not to be in another relegation battle come the end of the season, as they seem to have been for the last few years.

A new head coach brings new excitement though, and when they can get their takeover sorted it means that they can press ahead with new plans.

However, I can only see a Luton win here – even though last season’s result was a thumping 5-0 victory for the Blues.