The EFL Championship fixtures were announced today, and we were given quite a challenging start to the new season in August.
We start off at home on August 4th against Norwich City, before heading to Garry Monk’s former side Middlesbrough the following weekend.
Our next match at St Andrew’s will be against relegated Swansea City, before two away fixtures in a row; one midweek against Bolton and then to finish the month versus Nottingham Forest:
Fans on Twitter felt the fixtures could have been kinder to us:
I be happy with 7-9 points
— Rob (@Rob89_BcFc) 21 June 2018
3 wins 1 draw 1 loss
— Adam Nicholls (@Adam18031983) 21 June 2018
Tough start, but you have to play everyone twice, so it doesn't really matter.
— Andrew (@andrew1978c) 21 June 2018
Tough! I expect 4 of those 5 to be challenging for promotion!
— Mark Galloway (@Covbluenose) 21 June 2018
Top by September 1
— James Tortise (@jamestortise) 21 June 2018
Tough start to be fair… but no game is going to be easy apart from the Vile
— stu bcfc1875 (@stuartroberts18) 21 June 2018
Not to bad, Swansea will be a test and 5k away at Bolton again (tickets permitting)
— richard p (@rpercy39) 21 June 2018
not a bad runn in can see us getting 10 points????
— liam cowley bryenton (@BryentonLiam) 21 June 2018
15 pts and a +6 gd
— David Macca (@dmacca90) 21 June 2018
Cracking start, can’t wait
— BCFC FANS FORUM (@bcfansforum) 21 June 2018
Verdict:
It does look like a pretty tough start, although getting a relegated side like Swansea at home early on, when they have a new manager in charge, could be a benefit for us.
Having our first game at St Andrew’s is also positive as well. If we can get three points from the opening day, it will give us a confidence boost heading into the rest of the month’s matches.