It has not been easy being a fan of Coventry City over recent seasons.

Under the torrid ownership of the much-maligned Sisu group, the Sky Blues had dropped from the top end of the Championship down to the bottom end of League Two.

But now a sense of cautious optimism is creeping back into the West Midlands' city.

Under the guidance of Mark Robins, the club have enjoyed their first tastes of positivity for many years. A Checkatrade Trophy win at Wembley set the tone and the club walked the League Two play-offs last season. So why shouldn't another promotion to the Championship follow?

Lack of competition

Last season saw the duopoly of Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers spoil the excitement of automatic promotion race, pushing plucky Shrewsbury Town into play-off heartbreak.

Previous seasons have seen Wolves, Wigan (again), Bristol City and Bolton Wanderers have a place at the top sewn up before a ball had been kicked.

This season, however, it is wide open. Sunderland are the slight favourites but still face an uncertain season which could still even go very badly. Barnsley and Burton Albion, who also dropped into the third tier, will both fancy their chances but are no dead certs for a top six finish.

The Sky Blues currently sit eighth favourites for the League One crown and with the momentum built over the last campaign, it is hard to see them not challenging at the top of the table.

Hot property

A goalscorer is crucial in League One when it comes to being in the promotion picture.

Of course, it does not guarantee it, but it certainly helps. Bradley Dack and Will Grigg both scored 19 and 18 goals for Blackburn and Wigan as both teams won promotion last year and the season before Billy Sharp's 30 goals fired Sheffield United to the League One title.

In Marc McNulty, they already have a deadly marksman.

After scoring 28 goals in 52 games the 25-year-old will be ready to take his goalscoring up a level. He only has to look to last season's League One top scorer to see how it can be done. Jack Marriott got himself 27 goals for Peterborough United after moving up a division from Luton Town. So there is no reason McNulty cannot recreate Jack's success.

19-year-old midfielder Tom Bayliss also offers quality in midfield. The youth product burst onto the scene last season and will only improve in the coming season.

So, with a weaker crop of teams to compete with and a handful of ready-made players, Coventry City have a real chance of recreating the back-to-back promotions of Peterborough United in 2009/10 and Rotherham United in 2012/13 and fight their way back to the Championship where they feel they belong.