Hart on The Albion and his pre-season predictions

The pre-season preparation had been going well, including an emphatic 3-1 victory against European Champions Chelsea, so much so that when I returned from holiday at the weekend, speaking to a number of local Albion fans, expectations for the upcoming campaign were extremely high.Clearly, Tuesday’s reverse has somewhat dampened these expectations, which, in some ways, is possibly a good thing.We still await the alleged “marquee” signing, whether history will repeat itself and, as in August, 2000, when Bobby Zamora arrived permanently the night before the first league fixture, remains to be seen.To be fair, with the Albion at Hull, and almost certainly leaving first thing Friday, if we’re going to see any serious transfer developments, I would imagine it would be today (Thursday), rather than as it turned out 12 years ago.So, can the Albion mount a serious promotion challenge?The Championship is possibly one of the most unique leagues in the world. Go around the globe and most domestic divisions will have two, three or perhaps four legitimate contenders at the start of a season, except that is, for the Championship.While every team’s fans blindly think they can win in the league, there are, in my opinion, at least 10 sets of supporters in the Championship who know that, come 3pm this Saturday, they are in serious contention to win the league.Realistically, I firmly believe Brighton are in that crop of 10 clubs. With the addition of a proven goalscorer at this level, I seriously believe we can mount an assault of the footballing holy grail that is the Premier League.At this time of year, I do make a series of predictions, I think the winner of the Championship will come from a group of Blackpool, Birmingham, Leicester, Bolton or Brighton, with the other two promoted teams coming from the same group, but in what order?Well, that’s the beauty of the Championship. Sadly, at the other end, I think time will run out for both Peterborough and Palace, the other relegated side is anyone from about six