For those whose are still managing to inwardly contain their excitement at all the hectic transfer comings and goings of a post-Covid footballing world, at least the release of the fixture list is real tangible evidence that everyone really should believe we'll be up-and-running in three weeks - even less if you include the pseudo-friendly that is the first round of the Carabao Cup.
So Boro and new Boss Neil Warnock have just a couple of weeks to put together a team to face essentially an opening against two clubs who will be probably still stuffed with Premier League players. The pessimists among us probably couldn't have wished for a better opening and at least gives a decent excuse to for those who were hoping to get off to a good start but somehow didn't.
Still at least Sheff Wednesday's points deduction means we can't be bottom whatever happens, which in itself is some kind of victory. Nevertheless, we'll be continuing without the crowds or atmosphere and will probably see most teams looking a bit erratic as they merge seemlessly from quiet pre-season games into the equally quiet real thing.
Indeed, many supporters will be barely out of quarantine from ill-advised trips abroad before a ball is kicked in anger - although it appears the only safe distance being kept is by chairman and their bank balances as they ponder whether to hand their managers a bit of cash to fill the empty shirts of those players who failed to reap the benefit of allowing their contracts to run down - you know who you are Dani Ayala as you train with Nantwich instead of Norwich (what's few letters and a few quid in the grand scheme of things).
Anyway, I suppose Grant Hall (who thankfully is just one step above bugger all) will at least gets to face his former club QPR pretty soon, otherwise the local journos may have been struggling with an angle given the lack of off-field activity - apparently clubs can sign PL players until the back-end of October so this window could be an even slower burner than an inflammable joke candle in need of a match.
Question is - Will Boro be setting the league on fire this season? OK we'll soon be finding out if our attack will be hitting a few scorchers but I suspect most clubs will be feeling the heat at the prospect of a long season on limited income and the risk of another lockdown is still not off the agenda!
Watford Away: First game....
Championship opening day fixtures:
- Bournemouth v Blackburn Rovers
- Barnsley v Luton Town
- Birmingham City v Brentford
- Bristol City v Coventry City
- Cardiff City v Sheffield Wednesday
- Derby County v Reading
- Huddersfield Town v Norwich City
- Millwall v Stoke City
- Preston North End v Swansea City
- Queens Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest
- Watford v Middlesbrough
- Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/teams/middlesbrough/scores-fixtures/2020-09
One interesting statistic to come out of the 2019/2020 Championship season is that prior to lockdown there had been 190 home wins, 123 draws and 131 away wins. In the subsequent 9 weeks of matches there had been only 40 home wins, 26 draws and 42 away wins. This does seem to suggest that without spectators there is no advantage in playing at home. Perhaps those clubs that provide canned crowd noise might be able to redress that balance, so maybe Boro will need to consider that as they lost all 4 of their last home matches, and also have as many cardboard cut outs of fans as possible to regenerate home advantage as matches behind closed doors may possibly be the norm far longer than fans anticipate.
Tricky or opportune start to the season?
Watford A
Bournemouth H
QPR A
Tricky.
Could easily be L L L.
And if it is then NW and his newish untried team will be under immediate pressure.
Hope not, but there could all too easily be red flag signs posted before the season is in its stride.
As I always do I went straight to look at the last 6 fixtures of the season. They look relatively favourable I’d say if a club were in a handy position to challenge for a play-off spot.....
@exmil That FA Cup Final on 15th May could be tricky.
Logistically it might have been preferable to have played Bournemouth, or even Cardiff or Swansea away first as it would save fans a long journey with matches being played behind closed doors. As for the Boxing Day fixture at home to Rotherham one would hope by then that crowds are allowed as it traditionally produces one of the highest gates of the season.
Yes Ken, it would have made sense to play the fixtures further away to begin with to alleviate long journeys for fans once the ban is over.
But when were the fans ever considered by the powers that be......
Wouldn’t be a surprise if SKY picked our opening fixture for TV
Yes Ken, it would have made sense to play the fixtures further away to begin with to alleviate long journeys for fans once the ban is over.
But when were the fans ever considered by the powers that be......
I think Bournemouth fans will have a totally different view to our perspective on the travelling thing plus QPR and Watford are longish hikes for or fans, granted not as much as South Wales or Bristol but even so.
I wouldn't be surprised if away fans are banned from games for the entire season even when or indeed if the fan ban is lifted.
btw I've taken the opportunity of the fixture release to start new thread and ease the weight on the speculation thread 😉
So two weeks today and the next season commences with our cup game against Shrewsbury kicking off at the Riverside at 5:30 without spectators present at the ground. Historically, cup games have not been streamed so it will be interesting to see if there are any changes due to the impact of Covid.
It is also unclear if our first league game at Watford will be streamed as Watford are not part of iFollow and do not appear to have their own TV streaming service; it could be our first two games are audio only unless there are any illegal streams and hopefully Werder will be back to point us in the right direction. 😎
Welcome back Werder, hope you had a good break. Liked your new thread opener, especially Grant Hall and bugger all which made me chuckle. 😎
Interestingly the final matches of the season are to be played on a Saturday instead of a Sunday for the first time in ten years except for last season of course. I’ve no idea why the change.
Thanks for publishing Boro’s fixture list as above. Far easier to identify between home and away matches than presented on the Mfc website, especially for those like me with poor eyesight as with an iPad I’m able to stretch the screen. I’ve just copied them onto my history of the fixtures and results, red for home matches, black for away matches.
I’m curious why we are scheduled to play Birmingham twice within a month in December and January. Anyone with any interesting conspiracy theories?
I’m curious why we are scheduled to play Birmingham twice within a month in December and January. Anyone with any interesting conspiracy theories?
It's because by that time Birmingham will be in the bottom half of the table as usual with cracks showing and Karanka will be sacked early into the new year so if they left it any later we wouldn't be able to say goodbye again. 🙂
I’m curious why we are scheduled to play Birmingham twice within a month in December and January. Anyone with any interesting conspiracy theories?
It's because by that time Birmingham will be in the bottom half of the table as usual with cracks showing and Karanka will be sacked early into the new year so if they left it any later we wouldn't be able to say goodbye again. 🙂
Oo you are awful but I like you! 😂😎
It’s the little things like lack of attention to detail that makes me shake my head in disbelief when reading the Gazette website. The latest quote ‘It’s NOT close to the start of the football season’. Obviously a typecast error which was meant to read NOW instead of NOT, but T and W are 3 steps away on the keyboard but also the sentence gives a complete opposite of what the article was meant to convey. I may be pedantic but surely a mistake like this should be spotted before going into print.
I was interested to read that the Premier League is to propose to clubs before the season starts that if there is another suspension due to Covid-19 and more than 50% of fixtures have been played then the season will be ended and the current standings in the table will be declared as final.
I wonder if the Football League will follow suit? I suspect they will and I also suspect that there is a strong likelihood that at some point there may well be another lockdown. All of which means getting off to a good start may be imperative or rather avoiding a bad start and struggling at the bottom.
It also brings into question the sense of committing to signing more players and being exposed to paying wages if gate income could be essentially non-existent or at best somewhere around 20-25% on reduced capacity and then cut short.
Incidentally, the halfway point of the season in which the 50% rule could kick in is after 2nd January - which may well be around the point where Covid-19 cases could be on the rise and at significant levels as winter bites.
Makes you wonder just how viable this season is going to be for many clubs - perhaps we'll see many waiting for loan deals rather than buying given the perilous financial state and debts in the game.
I've just read the gazette sports page as I do every morning, I was taken aback to read AV'spiece telling us that he is leaving, today is his last day.
That's a massive blow for us fans and for 'the Gazette (Teesside Live, whatever), his writing always painted a picture, he was brilliant.
So, AV, I hope you read this blog. I'd just like to say thank you, your blog was fantastic and having just read your piece in the Gazette you achieved everything in your writing that you aimed for.
I trust we will read your work elsewhere soon, I certainly hope so.
The end of an era.