Put away your barbecue, mentally prepare yourselves for the cold and dark nights to return – the fixtures are out.
Yes, that moment of excitement when you mentally pinpoint exactly when you’re going to have a day off to go and watch Burton. And the flicker of optimism when you look at a run of three games and you think “they’re all winnable”…
So, what are we to make of what the computer fixture has spewed out for us? Firstly, there’s no real “oof” moments outstanding – maybe Hartlepool away on a Tuesday night in October, and Home Park on Easter Monday, but there’s no Torquay-on-New-Years-Day type clash.
Visiting Plainmoor first game of the season is one of those could-win-could-lose ones. And no doubt those on holiday down the West Country that weekend have just had their travel plans altered 😉
We do get two of the longer away ones out of the way quite quickly, with another trip to Exeter a couple of weeks later. In fact, we seem to have a fair few back-to-back clashes (away to Morecambe then away to Hartlepool the following Tuesday will be a test).
Christmas and New Year seems kind to us, at least travelling wise. Ditto the salivating trip to Fratton Park in mid-February. And for once, we get to go the Kassam on a Saturday…
I do have to be honest and say that I think I would have preferred not to have t’Stanley on the last day, although with luck we won’t be needing a result there this time around. And at least it shouldn’t get snowed off in May, although you can never tell with that part of Lancashire.
The thing is that it’s pretty pointless saying “we’ve got a shit run in”, or “this will be a good month for us”, because we just don’t know how any of the teams are going to do this campaign. Some are spending more than others, of course, but as last season should have told us, everyone seems to be as shit as each other.
Christ, if you took our 2013 form, we were eighth.
Anyway, there isn’t much more to say on this – at least we’re planning trips to Burton and Portsmouth rather than Alfreton and Cambridge United. Just think for a second how near we came to waiting for the Conference fixtures to come out.
Now we need some players. And I get the sense this won’t be the last update I do today….