Fixtures Announced on Thursday

Fixtures Announced
By Chris O'Brien
June 23 2004

The league fixtures for all 92 Football League clubs are announced on Thursday. United kicked off last season with a comfortable 4-0 win over Lancastrian rivals Bolton Wanderers, but what will the opening game be next term?

The fixtures for the four divisions are announced on Thursday, which has prompted the strange pre-season excitement we see every season as fans miss the week-in, week-out football action. Not such a big thing has been made over the announcement of the fixtures by the Premier and Football League this season due to the ongoing European Championships in Portugal, a tournament which is arguably the best of its kind for decades so far.

The Red Devils kicked off last season with a home fixture against Lancastrian rivals Bolton Wanderers, with Cristiano Ronaldo making an instant Football League impact with an impressive performance as substitute as United cruised to a 4-0 victory. The Old Trafford opener followed a long pre-season schedule, and the Red Devils have an even longer list of friendlies lined up this year including another tour of the United States and the eagerly anticipated Vodafone Cup competition at the Theatre of Dreams.

The opening day of the season for the 2004/2005 campaign is August 14th, 2004 and will be the weekend after United defend their Community Shield crown against unbeaten Premiership champions Arsenal. New names visiting Old Trafford this season will be Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace who were all promoted from the First Division, whilst the top flight has lost Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and, of course, Leeds United!

Unfortunately, the ridiculous copyright laws mean the true fans of the Football League clubs are not prohibited to post fixture-list in unofficial publications without paying a mammoth fee. Therefore, we will only be able to offer comment on the list here on ManUtdWeb and offer links to the full list printed. What odds a Manchester derby for starters?