The fixture list we want to see

While a computer is left to run off the fixtures for the 2016-17 season, you know that it has been programmed by human hands and even with the best intentions, there will be some games that fans will look and stare at and say why do we have to play them then? AFCB did not get pulled around with many mid-week fixtures last time around and I'm hoping for something similar this time, but you can't pick when you play clubs in European competitions and these are going to be games that often get moved to a different time slot.  

We will soon be able to plan our football year.

When the fixtures come out it certainly focuses the mind on the new season. AFCB will have a sudden up surge in those season ticket holders finally booking their seats and we will be keen to find out when we are playing the big teams and that other team down the road. But have you considered what Edie Howe and Jason Tindall have on their minds when they see that fixture list? Last season it was certainly the painful run of fixtures at the end of the campaign that worried them. This next season they will equally be looking for a good start and a more favourable back end to the games, while fans will probably be looking at the big lot of fixtures over the Christmas period.

Some may say that you have to play everyone twice so what does it matter? But I do believe that the timing of playing teams can have a big affect on morale and points during the season. No one wants to play the biggest four sides one after another and yet if you get a run of the lower quality sides you have to target that period as an opportunity to get some momentum in your season. 

So AFCB are first to take on Jose Mourinho's Man Utd and first to visit the Olympic Stadium - are you excited already?