Hatters looking for a change in fortune on opening day

The brand new season is finally upon us and after a summer of uncertainty where we were unsure if we would have a club to support today, it is damn good to be back! County's record on the opening day of the season in the past decade isn't good, so hopefully Paul Simpson will be able to work some magic to get us off to a good start in our npower League Two campaign.

In the past decade the Hatters have won just twice on the opening day of the season, with those victories coming in the 2000/01 season and the 2007/08 season. In the last two years County have picked up useful points on the opening day of the season following useful draws away at both Oldham Athletic and Huddersfield Town when we were plying our trade in the Division above.

The game against Huddersfield was our first in League One following promotion via the play-offs and after a slow start in the match we found our feet and certainly deserved to take a point from the clash. Last season's clash with Oldham couldn't have been any different, as we were second best for large spells of the match and were lucky to come away from Boundary Park with a point.

The most likely result if we take into account our results on the opening day of the season would be a defeat as we have won 2, drawn 3 and lost 5 of the 10 matches played. We're also likely to concede a goal today as we have only kept two cleans sheets in the past decade.

Date	Opponents	Result	Competition
08/08/2009	Oldham Athletic (A)	D 0-0	League One
09/08/2008	Huddersfield Town (A)	D 1-1	League One
11/08/2007	Dagenham & Redbridge (H)	W 1-0	League Two
05/08/2006	Hereford United (H)	L 2-0	League Two
06/08/2005	Mansfield Town (H)	D 2-2	League Two
07/08/2004	Huddersfield Town (H)	L 3-2	League One
09/08/2003	Wycombe Wanderers (A)	L 1-0	League One
10/08/2002	Colchester United (A)	L 1-0	League One
11/08/2001	Coventry City (H)	L 2-0	Championship
12/08/2000	Gillingham (A)	W 3-1	Championship

Goals scored on opening day of the season: 9

Goals conceded on opening day of season: 13

Average time of first goal scored by Hatters on opening day: 52 mins

Average time of first goal conceeded by Hatters on opening day: 30 mins

All the above information is based on the last decade of results.

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