Fixture Feelings: who do you want, when?

So it's Fixture Release Eve Eve, and I'm sure we've all got games we're looking out for, whether it's a local game as an exiled fan, maybe the Christmas fixtures, bank holidays, or you might, like me, be planning a trip for opening day and just hope you can get in!!

So...who do you want first up?  Home or away?
Which games would you like to see around Christmas?
Which trips and grounds are you looking forward to?
Will we even be able to get a ticket?
Will we see the return of the green seats?

I'll start by putting in a prayer to the football Gods for a home game to open the season, against a team with a small following (Crawley or Stevenage maybe) so we can have town fans in the Osmond (and therefore making it more likely I can get a ticket!).  A hot Opening Day with a full house and a great atmosphere would be amazing.

As for other games, I don't mind too much, but looking forward to Sutton and Wimbledon away, having not gone in 1989, and of course Orient which is always good fun.

Just hope it's as good a day as our last first fixture back in the EFL.

Sunny day, home game and a 2-0 win.

We were all so positive and feeling great to be back, looking forward to a bright future in the league. This time, I think we actually have one.

Can’t make the opening game so an away game please (not Doncaster)

Yep - I'm for a tinpotter at home, or club with big away end, but not Donny, Stocky or Bradford - the police would throw their toys out and put some stupid restriction on it. The Times and Daily Wail journos would be out with their own sniffer dogs. Not London either, I wouldn't get a ticket for Orient or AFCW. Not Stevenage, no further comment needed. Carlisle, Tranmere or Swindon perhaps...?

Selfishly I can’t go to the first two games so Crawley away followed by Sutton at home then Bradford away please!

It’ll be nice not to have the potential of a KO being moved for TV at 10 days’ notice this season, might help keep travel costs down.

I’m praying it’s a home game to start with, as I’m the away on holiday for the first three weeks of August (speculatively booked last summer, when worrying about our first game back in the league seemed like it would be a few years away at least).

I think the ideal would indeed be a side with a smaller following at home. I can think of occasions when we’ve had Town fans in the larger section of the Osmond, but I can’t recall us filling it. That would be great.

If not that, then a side with a big and vocal away following, like Bradford perhaps, would be the next best thing.

If it’s away, then I pray it’s somewhere that can take our numbers. There aren’t many clubs that are going to be able to handle the demand for that first game. Donny and Bradford have the ability to offer biggish allocations (about 4,000 and 3,200 respectively) but the relative short distance is still going to mean that won’t be enough.

Tranmere, a bit further away but limited to a 2,500 allocation still isn’t going to cover it.

Carlisle offer up to 3,700 which might just about meet demand, but I think it would be a close run thing. That only really leaves Swindon, which is both a ball ache to get go and offers up to 3,300 putting them in a similar bracket.

And that’s it. At the other end of the spectrum Harrogate away would be an absolute nightmare, and you’d hope the EFL have measures in place to factor these kind of things into account, but you never know.

If Town go well next season, this problem is going to be a frequently recurring theme. I think there’s a reasonable chance we’ll have the biggest average away following in the division next season.

I think it would be good to have our first game back in the league at home. Hopefully to someone nondescript like Barrow, Newport, Salford, Crawley or Sutton. Someone who would bring next to no fans as I reckon we could sell out the Osmond on the first day of the season.

Following that, I’d like a decent but doable trip as our first away game the following weekend. To somewhere like Carlisle or Northampton. We’ll still take an absolute shed load but demand should be somewhat diminished by a decent trip (increasing my chances of getting a ticket)!

If the EFL is bright, they will send us to Harrogate on a Tuesday night in January. By then, the season could well be fizzling out (sadly it remains possible despite all the optimism), plus a cold Tuesday night in winter will put plenty off anyway. If they’re anything like the NL though they’ll send us there on August 6th or December 17th, which will cause chaos cos Town fans will likely sell out the home end, let alone the away one.

One of the games against Bradford or Donny just before Christmas and around Easter would be good. Send us to Mansfield, or better still let us play at home, on Boxing Day. But reckon they’re more likely to make us traipse off to Colchester or Newport around Christmas, just as they’ll be able to cope with the demand.

Carlisle away would be grand.

Could accommodate a big away following from us and we'd take loads more than we would if we played there mid-season.

Scunthorpe away..........................................









.........................................But it may never happen again.