The waiting is over. The English nPower Championship is kicking off tomorrow. Three encounters have got our attention while some other good special bets are in offer!

Norwich v Watford

Norwich will attempt to end an eight-year hoodoo when they kick-off the Championship season against Watford on Friday evening.

Not since their 4-0 win over Grimsby in 2002 have the Canaries triumphed on the opening weekend but of greater concern to Paul Lambert will be how quickly his players can adapt to life at this level on the back of blitzing their way to the League One title.

Watford would appear to make ideal opposition in that respect because not only did they finish comfortably in the bottom half last season but they now return to action with their summer transfer activity incomplete.

The Hornets are placing huge faith in a cost-cutting youth development exercise after reducing the wage bill further and now play a waiting game in their attempts to find some quality replacements on loan from the Premier League.

You suspect Malky Mackay's telephone calls will be warmly received over the next few weeks in light of how he furthered the careers of Tom Cleverley and Henri Lansbury but right now this seems like an excellent opportunity for Norwich to make a confident start.

Lambert has recruited well in the summer and it could be worth siding with arguably the pick of his new arrivals to make an instant impact.

The career of Andrew Surman stalled following a big-money move to Wolves last summer but he's a player of undoubted quality and now he's back in an environment set up for him to flourish.

With a decent record in front of goal at this level, the former Southampton midfielder lloks standout value to score first at 19.00 at Bet365 and anytime at 7.00 again, at Bet365.

Indeed, Surman found the net with a fine strike in the Canaries' final warm-up match against Everton last weekend and our prospects of landing this bet are only helped by question marks hanging over the Norwich forwards.

For starters, Grant Holt hasn't had the best of pre-seasons and has only just returned from a thigh injury. Now he could miss this game due to a court appearance over a motoring offence 200 miles away in Market Drayton.

Meanwhile, Simeon Jackson has yet to find the net in a string of friendlies since his big summer move from Gillingham and reports suggest he has looked increasingly anxious about the fact.

Leeds v Derby

Leeds make their long-awaited return to the Championship following a frustrating three-year exile in League One and now Simon Grayson is faced with the rare luxury of a campaign when expectations will be limited in relation to the size of the club.

Nobody quite knows where the Whites should be setting their sights but it's not unreasonable to suggest they can mount a play-off push if they bolster their attack and recreate something like the standards set against top-half Premier League opposition in the cup competitions last season.

However, for the moment, the departure of Jermaine Beckford is the source of some insecurity at Elland Road and it's a situation that Derby might be primed to take full advantage of this weekend.

With new signing Billy Paynter sidelined by injury, questions of where goals will come from have been posed repeatedly in the build-up and it could lead to some anxiety in the final third against a side who notched an impressive haul of 16 shut outs last term.

Needless to say, we'll stake our claim here by taking some of the 3.00 available on Derby to keep a clean sheet (at Bwin, choose "Will team 1 score?" No, at 3.50).

The Rams aren't so accomplished at this level to be expected to take the game to Leeds in their own backyard but they will fancy their chances of taking the spoils if they get the basics right by making themselves difficult to break down.

Nigel Clough is well aware of the deficiencies within his squad when the onus is on them to make all of the running, as illustrated by some humbling defeats on home soil during his time at Pride Park.

By contrast, nearly all of his biggest results have been built on a solid defensive performance when most of his first-choice defenders have been fit and available.

So the pressure might be off Leeds in the context of the season as a whole, but it will tangible in this isolated instance when the television cameras are present and all eyes are fixed on jumping to instant conclusions about how well they will adjust.

Cardiff v Sheffield United

Two of the Championship's most seasoned campaigners will slug it out in the weekend's final televised clash, and don't be too surprised if they end up looking like a couple of heavyweight boxers whose best days are behind them.

That might seem like a rather harsh expectation of two teams who finished fourth and eighth respectively last term but there's no shortage of apathy in either camp following a summer of budget cuts and unimaginative transfer dealings.

That's not to say both sides are destined for nine months of mind-numbing mediocrity, just don't expect to see too much inspiration on show at this early stage if the general mood coming from the respective local media is to be taken as a yardstick.

Cardiff find themselves in exactly the same position now that Sheffield United were in 12 months ago, having suffered the heartbreak of a Wembley play-off final defeat barely two months prior, and the inevitable hangover hasn't been helped by an ongoing transfer embargo.

The Bluebirds have looked extremely pedestrian in pre-season games, according to reports, and it's perhaps no surprise without any new faces to freshen the place up and provide some much-needed competition for places.

The arrival of Jason Koumas on loan is obviously a step in the right direction but rumours that Peter Whittingham could be on the verge of a £2m move to Nottingham Forest threaten to swiftly extinguish that puff of positivity.

As for the Blades, they have been rather more active in the market but there's no hiding the fact that Kevin Blackwell is continually downsizing under orders from the Bramall Lane board.

All things considered, this isn't a game to get too heavily involved in but we feel a punt on no goalscorer is in order at general odds of 10.00 (choose "0-0" correct score at Bet365at 10.00!).
 

Best of the rest:

As we pointed out in our outright preview, Aidy Boothroyd is used to working with limited budgets and doesn't get the opportunity to work with genuine quality too often but, when he does, he certainly gets the maximum out of it.

So expect Gary McSheffrey to figure prominently in the final third for Coventry this season and we can turn this chain of thought into profit by snapping up odds of 3.75 at Bet365 on the winger-cum-striker to score anytime against Portsmouth at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday.

McSheffrey was a revelation at this level two seasons ago when helping Birmingham to secure automatic promotion but he has since endured a difficult 12 months at St Andrew's following surgery on a persistent knee injury that ultimately restricted his chances under Alex McLeish.

However, now the 26-year-old could be reinvigorated by a return to his hometown club and a fresh opportunity to play a more inhibited role operating in the hole between the left flank and just behind the strikers.

Reports suggest McSheffrey was looking like his old self when scoring the only goal in Coventry's final warm-up game against West Brom last weekend and you would expect more opportunities to present themselves against a Portsmouth side in some disarray and short on numbers at present.

Indeed, it would seem that Steve Cotterill will have a real job getting to grips with the task at Fratton Park and some punters will no doubt be attracted by the 2.30 at win (Coventry to win) available on the home win but we feel the value in that price is dwarfed by the potential joy to be found in siding with McSheffrey.