Next season’s fixtures

The fixture list for 2018/9 will be published on 21 June. I’ve got three wishes....

1. A home game on the opening day. A win to start the season is important and being at home can always help. It gives many supporters, those who don’t go to friendlies, an early chance to see new signings. And for Notts, it’s long overdue. In the last ten years we’ve had only two games at home on the opening day and all of the last seven have been away. Time to start rectifying the balance.

2. A home game on Boxing Day. Always good for attendances, especially if the opponents are local. I can remember about 30,000 in Meadow Lane for a Boxing Day fixture with Forest in the 1970s. And what have we had in the last ten years? Only four home fixtures out of ten against local rivals such as Grimsby, Rochdale, MK Dons and Doncaster (the last of which might seem a half-decent choice). To make things worse, the Grimsby and Rochdale games were both postponed, resulting in only two home games actually being played on Boxing Day in the last ten years. Again, it’s time to start rectifying the balance.

3. Avoidance of the situation which occurred twice last season when both Notts and Forest were scheduled to play at home on the same weekend, resulting in each club having to shift a game to a day/time which probably reduced the attendance. This was inexcusable and made me wonder what the people who programmed the EFL computer were thinking of.

Point three might be mitigated this year. It's a bit like dominos. We can't play at home the same time as Forest. Nottinghamshire police have asked that Notts and Mansfield are at home at same time so that they aren't stretched with Forest and Mansfield issues. I don't think Chesterfield and Mansfield can be at home at the same time either do to proximity and also rivalry. So it's kind of a domino effect that can't always be fixed, if Derbyshire police request Chesterfield are away when Derby are at home then everything goes a bit wobbly with all the knock on permutation

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Originally Posted by Chicken Balti Pie

Point three might be mitigated this year. It's a bit like dominos. We can't play at home the same time as Forest. Nottinghamshire police have asked that Notts and Mansfield are at home at same time so that they aren't stretched with Forest and Mansfield issues. I don't think Chesterfield and Mansfield can be at home at the same time either do to proximity and also rivalry. So it's kind of a domino effect that can't always be fixed, if Derbyshire police request Chesterfield are away when Derby are at home then everything goes a bit wobbly with all the knock on permutation

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And there are those weekends we play (international break) which means Forest have fewer weekends to fit their games in, meaning generally it will happen a couple of times. Is it really a drama?

First game at home will more than likely mean last game away. Not good for celebrations

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Originally Posted by Frigiliana Pie 1

3. Avoidance of the situation which occurred twice last season when both Notts and Forest were scheduled to play at home on the same weekend, resulting in each club having to shift a game to a day/time which probably reduced the attendance. This was inexcusable and made me wonder what the people who programmed the EFL computer were thinking of.

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This will probably happen on a couple of weekends again and, to be fair to the fixture people, isn't really their fault.

The problem is that there are now so many more clubs who request to be 'paired' (not at home on the same weekend) or not be at home on the weekend of a major local event. I think a couple of years ago it got to the point where there were so many requests that it isn't possible to accommodate all of them.