We kicked off our second season in The Championship at home to newly promoted Swindon Town. I decided to keep the same formation and largely the same personnel barring Alfie Jones at CB who was making his debut.
Bowler was getting his Full debut at left wing after signing permanently from Everton very close to the game kicking off. 21k will prove to be a bargain for this lad. But more on that later.
A comfortable 3-0 win where we didn't even allow the visitors a shot, let alone a shot on target. A good start.
Next up, an away trip to another newly promoted side in Hull City and a quick return to the north east for new signing Jones.
Similar style result to last year, soaking up pressure and hitting them hard on the counter. Winning 3-1.
A last minute Fred Onyedinma goal was enough to see off Cardiff City. A fantastic start to the season.
Change of focus next as we faced off against Leyton Orient from League 2.
I made 10 changes to rest players and get a much needed 90 mins under some other belt. We finished 1-1. Horgan scoring in the 91st minute to take it to penalties where we eased through 4-1.
The ideal start to the cup as well. Players rested and into the hat for the second round.
The first hiccup of the season came at Kenilworth Road where we lost to an early Mpanzu goal, 1-0 The Hatters.
A 0-0 draw away at Forrest followed with White missing a penalty in the second half. This is the first time we have missed set piece expert Joe Jacobson in the starting line up. He had a steep decline in preseason and has decided to retire at the end of the season.
Back home and a solid 1-1 draw with Preston. Main talking point was the severe injury to Ikpeazu who would be out for some time.
Back to the League Cup and we were away at Cambridge. I've taken a leaf out of Ian Holloways book and again made wholesale changes to my cup team.
Kashket and Horgan came good in the end after we went 1-0 down on the first half and we were into the third round.
We were back at home against Swansea. An awful performance from the lads and we were lucky to only concede 1.
So that August done with and after 7 league games we were sitting in 8th place in the table with 11 points.
Only 4 games to play in September and we start at bitter rivals Reading.
Spoils were shared with a 1-1 draw at Adams Park. Scott Kashket scoring again to give us the lead before a second half equaliser pins us back.
A long trip up north followed to newly relegated Sheffield United. We took a shock 8th minute lead through Onyedinma but were quickly pegged back before conceding late on. 2-1 at a recent premier league team shows progression as we were getting thumped by teams like Sheffield united last season.
League Cup Third Round next and we welcome the Baggies to Adams park. Having been relegated from the Premier they offered a stern test. So stern in fact only an own goal could separate the two sides as we sneak through into the 4th round.
Next up a visit to the second city to face Birmingham and it was one for the neutral as we saw 8 goals, 5 of which were in the first half and a sending off.
We raced into a 3-0 lead with 2 from Kashket and 1 from Onyedinma. Kashket completed his hattrick before half time but before the whistle blew McCarthy picked up his second yellow and we wee down to 10 for the whole second half.
We faced huge pressure and were pegged back to 4-3 before Kashket scored again on the break to take his tally to 4 and win us the game.
Game of the season contender for sure.
After the September games we are sitting in 10th place in the table with 15 points.
Plus we have the 4th round draw of the league cup to look forward to.
Really encouraging start to the season and its good to see we are scoring goals home and away!
Hopefully this continues through the season.
Cheers
Panda