We start with Millwall and end with Rotherham United, and in between we have a fixture list which is not exactly kind to our travelling supporters.

Just over a decade ago I was one of the supporter representatives on the League’s fixture committee, and in those days they always avoided having any troublesome games on the opening day, so I’m a bit surprised we’ll begin our campaign at the New Den. Either they think it’s calmed down a bit there (I wish) or they think they may as well get this clash out of the way.

One thing the fans always asked the league to do was to reduce the number of long trips we have in midweek, only to be told that the clubs preferred the exact opposite, to reduce their travel costs over a season. If they can have all the short trips on Saturdays it cuts down on the number of times they have to book a hotel for an overnight stay, so bugger the fans.

And nothing has changed. This year we have ten midweek games (excluding bank holidays) home and away, and every one of them is a long distance trip against a team from the south or from East Anglia. You might have fancied a trip to Norwich to catch up with our former players, but it’s tough luck if you can’t get there on a Tuesday night (October 21st). It’s a shoddy way to treat the most loyal fans of the game, both ours and everyone else’s.

The last day of the season should be a bit calmer than the first, with a home game against Rotherham, though that might not be quite the end of our campaign. I dreamt last night that we were about to play Derby in the play-off final, so you never know.

For copyright reasons we haven’t got permission to reproduce the full fixture list, but you can click here to go to the list on the official site. But that’s before Sky get their hands on it and start choosing a ridiculous number of Leeds games to move and cause even more inconvenience for match-going fans. Watch this space.

Photo: Action Images

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