MARK Lawn reckons City have already got one over title favourites Sheffield United – by keeping Phil Parkinson.

Having fallen once again at the play-off stage last month, the Blades are the top tip with the bookies to bounce back and win next season’s League One under new boss Nigel Adkins.

City blocked their recent approach for Parkinson before Sheffield United appointed the former Scunthorpe, Southampton and Reading chief and Lawn can see strong similarities between the two managers.

The Valley Parade joint-chairman said: “I’m not surprised they are favourites with Nigel Adkins in charge. I’ve always admired him as a manager.

“I’ve only ever met him once. My son Brannan was playing for Bradford at Doncaster Rovers and his son was there playing for them.

“We had a conversation through the game for a good hour or so and he came across as a very intelligent and articulate man.

“He’s a lot like Phil. He is very calm and talks a lot of commonsense.

“I think it will be great when they pit their wits against each other during the season because they’re both good managers.

“But I’m quite happy they went for Nigel. I think we got the best end of the deal keeping Phil.”

City are currently sixth favourites with the bookmakers and Lawn feels genuinely confident they can improve on last season’s finish just outside the play-offs.

“I’m normally pretty pessimistic but I think we’ve got a great chance next season,” he added.

“I tend to get it somewhere near after we’ve played about 13 games.

“I can usually tell then roughly where we’ll finish. I thought we’d be ninth last season – and we ended up seventh.

“But I think we can get in the play-offs this time. We’ve certainly got the best starting squad since I’ve been here.

“If we can bring in better players than what we’ve got, I can see us having a real push.”

The new fixtures are released at 9am on Wednesday.