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Some clubs were happy, Gillingham’s Paul Scally thinks they are superb fixtures, yet our own Barry Kilby and Cardiff’s Sam Hammam are far from happy with them.
Hammam has complained that Cardiff both start and end away from home whilst Barry is concerned that we have to play Gillingham on August Bank Holiday Monday in the afternoon. I’ve not quite seen this argument yet and although a Bank Holiday it is certainly much better to be travelling to the Priestfield then rather than on a midweek Tuesday night.
The worst fixture for most Burnley fans is the Tuesday night treck to Ipswich for the second successive season rather than the Gillingham encounter.
The biggest concern of all is the pattern of fixtures. Nobody expects a perfect pattern of alternating home and away games, that is impossible or some sides would never meet but surely it is an idea to get as close to that as possible.
It is certainly not the case and, postponements apart, Burnley play consecutive home matches on five occasions and consecutive away matches on six occasions.
It is no difficult to work out just why they are a mess sometimes when you listen to those responsible for compiling the fixtures. They are produced by a company called Schlumberger who are based in Wilmslow and in particular Sandra Whiteside who is Head of Fixtures, Events and Competitions and David Cookson the Fixtures Secretary.
The West Ham v Bradford City game has already had to be moved from August Bank Holiday Monday as was the Reading v Burnley game last season.
Sandra says, "Local events such as the Northampton Balloon Festival, Darlington Orange Festival and Nottingham Goose Festival have to be considered, in addition to requests and observations by the police."
Obviously she takes no notice of Reading Festival or the Notting Hill Carnival or the fact that year on year police move games because of these events. You would think she would learn, maybe it only applies to balloons, oranges and geese.
"It’s not simply a case of clubs playing home and away on alternate Saturdays throughout the season. There are various sequences of fixtures that are used and we have to fit pairings, cup dates, international dates and various other elements into these fixtures," Sandra adds.
There is certainly not much thought around the cup dates though. Last season we were due to play Preston at home on FA Cup 6th Round day with the match surrounded by three away fixtures at Stoke, Millwall and Walsall. Surely it doesn’t take much common sense to work out that a possible away tie in the cup means a ridiculous run of away fixtures. Mind you we did make it worse ourselves by re-arranging the game at Sheffield United.
I would have thought the sensible option would be to always ensure the games either side of a potential cup tie should include one at home and one away and that would avoid any unnecessary sequence at home or away.
Clubs can of course make submissions and after an Easter Monday trip to Norwich in 2001 Burnley specifically asked that should we be away again on Easter Monday then it would be preferable to be closer to home. They sent us to Portsmouth in 2002.
But what about moving a fixture to a new date. You would think it would just have an effect on two clubs but at her most inspired Sandra tells us it is not that simple.
"It is a misconception that you can simply move a fixture. Any fixture that is moved involves at least two teams on four playing dates and more often than not you could be looking at reviewing the fixtures for twelve clubs on four dates. This is because teams are grouped with their pairings and any movement will affect pairings up and down the country and may put several sets of fans in one area at the same time."
No I don’t understand it either but she then goes on to explain the situation with long midweek journeys such as our visit to Ipswich, "One of the main problems is travel and that is a real stumbling block.
"Fans do need to know that we do try to help them as much as we can. But at the end of the day The Football League does have to place public order and safety above midweek travel in the order of priority.
"In fact some of the dates are down to the clubs themselves. Some clubs prefer to make long journeys in midweek."
I’m sure you are all so much happier now Sandra has explained everything, and she still hasn’t told us why we are away for the fifth time in six years on Boxing Day.