Football League Fixtures Announced

Football League
By Chris O'Brien
June 26 2004

The Football League have released the fixtures for the 2004/2005 campaign for all 92 clubs. City kick off their season in the newly-named 'Championship' away to Crewe Alexandra, with home matches against Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle following.

The Football League have released the fixtures for all 92 clubs. Cardiff City kick off their second consecutive season in the First Division, or Football League Championship even, with an away trip to Gresty Road to face Dario Gradi's Crewe Alexandra. The game isn't exactly a headline-grabbing start to the season and keeps up the Bluebirds' opening day jinx, with City having faced nine first game away trips in the past eleven seasons.

Lennie Lawrence's side nicked an undeserved 1-0 victory in Cheshire last season, thanks to a blooper from otherwise faultless 'keeper Ben Williams. The opening day away trip on August 7th is followed by a home fixture on the Tuesday against Coventry City, who took three points away from Ninian Park last season, with newly-promoted Plymouth Argyle visiting South Wales the next Saturday.

With Bristol City failing to gain promotion via the play-offs, and the Jacks still languishing in the fourth flight, there is a lack of a local derby once again meaning most City fans immediately looked for the dates of games against Leeds United. There has been a lot of animosity from Cardiff fans towards supporters of the Yorkshire outfit following the aftermath of our shock Cup defeat of Leeds in 2002. The re-match at Ninian Park will be on October 2nd, whilst the trip north is later in the season on January 15th.

Possible the most attractive fixture is the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers at home on Boxing Day. December 26th crowds are always bloated due to the 'fair-weather fans' that come out of the woodwork, and with a big following from the Midlands guaranteed the club may even be hoping for a full-house for that one. The season ends at home also, with last season's Second Division runners-up Queens Park visiting Ninian Park.

Before all this begins, City have a fairly long pre-season schedule to get through. City face Football League newcomers Chester City on their opening friendly, and the have a series of away matches in addition to a recently arranged home match with Racing Santander. The club will also field XI's against Barry Town, Haverfordwest County, Carmarthen Town and Chippenham Town.

Unfortunately, due to ridiculous copyright laws I am not allowed to publish the full list of fixtures here on Bluebird to the Bone without spending thousands of pounds on a licence. It does seem ridiculous that the people that will go and see these games are not allowed to even list them, but for a full list of Football League fixtures please click here.