With the new season starting in just over six weeks it was about time we got to know the fixtures so that we can start to plan our lives up to and including May next year. At last we know that we will be facing Cardiff City at home on the opening weekend.
It’s annoying that the EFL fixtures came out a week later than the Premier League announced theirs, when their season doesn’t start until a week later. But at least fans living some distance from Leeds who have missed out on those all-important cheap train tickets will have the option of staying at home to watch the game on Sky TV.
Yes, Sky have already got their talons into the fixture list, and our first game back in the EFL will be kicking off on Sunday August 6th, at 2.30pm. The first away game is at Birmingham the following Saturday and I believe we are getting a bumper allocation of tickets for that one. Presumably to accommodate all our fans who are desperate to see Tyler Roberts in action one more time.
The next away game is a trip to Ipswich on August 26th, which is handy for anyone wanting a bank holiday weekend in deepest East Anglia. Then things get a bit less friendly with a local derby against the Wendies, followed by a pleasant afternoon in Millwall, the cultural capital of South-East London.
In the run-up to Christmas we have to go to Sunderland for a Tuesday night game, but generally speaking these fixtures are pretty kind to traveling fans. Boxing Day is a reasonable trip to Preston, and the only really long-distance away match in midweek is the February 13th. game at Swansea. Out home game against the Jacks is also midweek, so they must have remembered that the two sets of fans haven’t always got on.
In the new year we visit the dog botherers on March 2nd, and the last away game takes us to QPR on April 27th. We finish the season at home to Southampton a week later, which may or may not be a very interesting occasion. There might also be the play-offs, but let’s not go there.
We don’t have the rights to show the fixture list in full, but you can see the full list here on the official site .
And if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, the draw for the first round of the Carabao Cup has also been made today, and we have been drawn at home to Shrewsbury. Presumably this will be played on Wednesday August 9th now that the Cardiff game has been put back, so that we can have a gap of three days between matches.
All we need now is a new head coach and a few new players. Watch this space.