Big Saturday of English Football Championship Play Topped by Fulham at Barnsley

The English Premier League won’t begin their 2019-2020 season until next weekend but at long last soccer has returned to the UK. The lower divisions of English football will start play this weekend including the Football Championship who get underway with one game on Friday before a full slate of fixtures on Saturday. One of the more intriguing matchups will feature newly promoted Barnsley FC against recently relegated Fulham.

Barnsley–who has the somewhat inexplicable nickname ‘The Tykes’ has spent more years at the second level of English football than any other team in history. That’s not hard to do when you’ve been at it for 132 years–Barnley FC began play in 1887 and reached their apex in the early 20th Century winning the FA Cup in 1911-1912 after finishing as runner up in 1910. They finally reached the Premier League in 1997 but would spend only one year in the top level of English football before being relegated once again. They’ve bounced back and forth between League One and the Championship ever since. In the past six years, three have spent at the second and third levels of the sport.

Fulham is now owned by Shahid Khan, best known to American sports fans as the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and co-founder of the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) pro wrestling promotion. He took over the team in 2013 and ever since they’ve spent most of the time in the Football Championship. They were promoted to the Premier League for the 2018-2019 season but after a 19th place finish are back in the second tier. It’s always tough to figure out how teams will respond to relegation from the Premiership but by every indication Fulham is in a good place mentally and emotionally. They have a well liked manager in Scott Parker and an owner willing to invest in the team. This does mean that the only true metric of success this season will be a return to the Premier League.

Fulham was an awful road team in the Premiership last season winning only 1 game away from Craven Cottage. They should do much better now that they’re dropping down in class of opposition. Fulham last played Barnsley in 2017-2018 when both teams were in the Football Championship with The Cottagers taking both the home and away fixtures. Barnsley’s lack of success at this level means that they might need to find their bearings if they’re to stick around this season. We’ll take the road team and lay the handicap price on the English Football Championship odds.

BET FULHAM PK, -1/2 -113 OVER BARNSLEY

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