THE prospect of a first full season under Chris Wilder has Middlesbrough fans licking their lips ahead of the new campaign.

Wilder took over in November last term and just missed out on the play-offs.

But Boro followers have huge belief they can go much further this term with the 54-year-old in charge from the get-go.

Taking part in Sky Bet’s Fan Hope Survey for the 2022-23 campaign, supporters from Teesside were more confident of winning promotion than any other Championship club’s fanbase.

Wilder is undoubtedly the driving factor.

His pedigree at this level was underlined by supporters of all second-tier clubs picking him as the best boss in the division.

Wilder’s old club Sheffield United, with whom he won promotion to the Premier League in 2019, are among a trio of clubs just behind Boro in terms of fan confidence of going up.

That trio also includes relegated Norwich and Luton, whose supporters seemingly fear no club now after last season’s surprise run to the play-offs.

Then come Watford and Burnley, both of whom also fell out of the big league last season and who each have new managers in Rob Edwards and Vincent Kompany.

It speaks to the competitiveness of the division that overall, fans of all clubs felt promotion was more realistic than not - just.

Though that cannot be said for the likes of Birmingham, Reading, Blackpool, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull.

The misery for fans of Birmingham, who recently swapped Lee Bowyer for rookie boss John Eustace in the dugout, continued too when it came to supporter predictions for the season.

Blues voters posted the lowest average finishing position in the table, at 13.1, significantly worse than the next lowest Reading and Rotherham.

At the top end of the scale, Watford came out on top on 5.0, showing how Edwards must hit the ground running with his new club’s followers.

Disciples of the Blades, Norwich and Boro also had scores in the 5s, followed by Luton and West Brom.

Kompany looks like he will be afforded a bedding-in period at Turf Moor, with the average spot from the Clarets fans surveyed being 7.3 - outside the play-offs.

Midtable mediocrity in the supporter prediction table went to Bristol City, Millwall and Cardiff.