Online Sports Journalist Craig Birch was the only one to tip Wolves as champions when the famed Express & Star predictions page was published in the summer – now he explains why.

The summer predictions page at the Express & Star is always keenly contested between the sports team. It is great to see how it all pans out.

Even the most knowledgeable of us can’t get every one right, but you can look like the second coming of Mystic Meg in some cases.

In others, if you had any more egg on your face, you’d be served on granary bread in our equally famed canteen.

Now I am by no means regarded as the footballing oracle when it comes to betting. My traditionial Saturday accumulators go up in smoke week after week, one particularly bad day this season ending with a team backed to win losing 7-0!

In a previous predictions page, the howls of laughter are probably still heard around the hallowed halls of our Queen Street offices, with my stubborn declaration that Greece would retain their crown at Euro 2008.

But it was yours truly who gave the sole backing to Mick McCarthy’s men to be crowned Champions, thus returning to the Premier League.

Although at the same time, as some are only too keen to point out, I didn’t even tip Reading for a play-off place.

Now Christmas is nearly upon us, suddenly my tip is looking pretty sound. But even I am exercising caution. Nothing has been won yet. I may not be peering into crystal balls with the editorial staff in attendance after all.

But what made me pick Wolves, based on the evidence of the summer and before?

Well, in my mind, always back a team on the up, rather than a team on the slip. The likes of Reading and Birmingham, whoever they retained, needed time to re-adapt to the Championship.

At the time, I also thought both Blues and Reading would lose a lot more players than they actally did.

There is also the added factor that, no matter who comes or goes, there is still a sense of doom and gloom about the place after relegation. The losing mentality can take some time to shake off. Need evidence? Ask Derby County.

While the big boys licked their wounds and tried to get a second wind, there was a time for one of the nearly men from last season to step in and bring the battle to them.

In came Wolves, looking like they had learned something from the failures of 2007/08. That season, they were seventh after the traditional first checkpoint of 10 games, having already lost three games.

With a fresh face or two in the summer and a fully fit squad, the team came flying out of the traps as this season began, their defeat at Swansea in league game 10 only their second loss in the league.

Lets look at some omens. Wolves seventh after 10 games last term, Wolves second at the same point this term. Wolves seventh at Christmas last term, Wolves top at Christmas this term.

Wolves finished seventh last term. Wolves finish? Well, first or second, if you would have asked anybody at Molineux in the summer whether that would do, chance are it would be a resounding yes.

So what has changed?

The strange thing is that there has not been wholesale changes from last season. Lets take a closer look.

In goal, Carl Ikeme’s emergence has put real pressure on the previously untouchable Wayne Hennessey and, with Matt Murray’s future increasingly in doubt, it needed to.

In defence marks the big noted difference. Mick had to act at left-back in particular, when George Elokobi was ruled for the season early on.

Matt Hill and George Friend both came in and neither has exactly set the world alight, for a multitude of reasons. When it came to the crunch, Stephen Ward stepped up and made the role his own.

Kevin Foley in the other full-back spot is fast becoming ‘Mr Dependable,’ but it is in the centre of defence that it took Mick time to find a solution.

Summer singing Richard Stearman – when he arrived on time – has been a fixture but no less than three players partnered him, before the current first-choice partner of Michael Mancienne was brought in.

Neill Collins, Jody Craddock and a £1million deadline day capture in Jason Shackell have all tried their luck, before a dip into the loan market saw the capture of Mancienne from Chelsea.

It is no coincidence that since Mick settled on these two, Wolves are started winning games again.

In midfield, Seyi Olofinjana was the big departure in the summer. Yet this has allowed skipper Karl Henry to adapt to that holding role which, to be fair, always suited him more anyway.

David Jones was brought in from Derby to add to a bit of creativity and has been a regular, not to discount the efforts of another playmaker in David Edwards, who has made a significant contribution when needed.

On the wings, Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly should have been on charges of attempted murder for the way they set about dismantling opposition full-backs early in the campaign.

Then not one but both went down injured – another parallel from last season – forcing Mick to bring in Carlos Edwards on loan from Sunderland.

He has now returned to his club, with Jarvis and Kightly fit again. The manager still wants another winger, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see another certain someone from Chelsea brought in on loan next month. Step forward Scott Sinclair.

In attack, few could have predicted the impact that Chris Iwelumo has had. Brought in from Charlton seemingly as a squad player, he has made a spot his own alongside Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, everyone’s shoe in to lead the attack.

His emergence has come at the expense of Andy Keogh – who is clearly a player that needs to be loved – and Sam Vokes, who at barely 19 years old can afford to bid his time.

The future is bright at Wolverhampton Wanderers, there is no question about it. A lot of the ‘dead wood’ has been moved out or is to be moved out, replaced by young, hungry and ambitious players.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere.