The daunting task facing the clubs promoted to the Championship this season was made abundantly clear when the fixtures were announced on Monday morning. Nottingham Forest entertain a Reading side that were only relegated from the top flight on the final day of the season and will be looking to bounce straight back.

Swansea travel to Charlton - still in receipt of the Premier League parachute payment - and little Doncaster Rovers travel to Pride Park to take on a Derby County side itching to make up for the embarrassment of last season. All three promoted teams then face clubs with very recent Premier League experience and with a budget that they could only dream of having. Welcome to the Championship!

It's an exciting day when the fixtures are announced and, as a Watford fan, I looked straight for our opening few fixtures. I found us to be away at Crystal Palace, one of the promotion favourites, home to Charlton, one of the promotion favourites, away to Forest, on the crest of a wave, home to Ipswich, one of the promotion favourites... I could go on, but I quickly realised that the task of getting out of the Championship next season is probably going to be even harder this time around.

When you look down the names of the teams in the Championship, you see very few easy games. Last season every team could beat every other team and I don’t see next season being any different. I have a real fear that Watford missed their best chance of returning to the top flight last season as there are so many teams who could go up next year. The chances are in the lap of the gods.

It is great that the Championship is so wide open. We all know who will finish in the top four of the Premier League, but I defy anyone to predict the likely promotion and play-off places at the end of the Championship season. Obviously Watford will fill one of the six places but the other five could go to anybody!

There is not one team in the league who won’t fancy that they have at least an outside chance of pushing for the play-offs. That makes for a great league and great entertainment for the fans. The players will be returning for pre-season training in a couple of weeks and the new signings will start to be made. I’m getting excited again just writing about it. Come on Aidy Boothroyd and you ‘Orns!