It's Round and It's White
It’s this time of year where every football fan has digested their clubs fixtures and penciling in what games they want to attend, either home or away and along come Sky Sports and ruins majority of fan’s plans.
That’s right, Sky have today chosen what Football League games will be shown live across the Sky Sports channels for the opening weeks of the 2012/2013 campaign. As the season kicks off on the 18th August, they have chosen a game to be played on the Friday night to get all fans mouths watering for what lies ahead for the next eight or nine months.
The opening game to be broadcasted live on Sky will be Huddersfield Town’s first match in the nPower Championship, when Simon Grayson takes his newly promoted side to Wales and take on last season’s Carling Cup runners-up, Cardiff City.
When the season officially kicks off the day after, Wolves travel to Elland Road to take on Leeds United. Neil Warnock will be relishing a chance for a home game to be their first of the campaign and fare better than they did on the opening day of the 2011/2012, again live on Sky, where they lost 3-1 against Southampton at St. Mary’s.
Just six days later on the 24th, Bolton Wanderers’ first match in the 2nd tier of English football for 12 years will be live against Nottingham Forest, which will be a cracking match if both teams want an early advantage to be promoted to the promise land.
International duties take place the second weekend of September so there will not be Premier League or Championship fixtures, so League One takes centre stage for live coverage. Back-to-back nPower League One matches start with a Sunday lunchtime kick-off at the Ricoh Arena where Coventry City take on Stevenage. The Sky Blues will be looking to have a good start to the season, looking to gain promotion back to The Championship whereas The Boro will want to improve on their playoff position in the last campaign.
The second match on this International break for League One is newly promoted Crawley Town hosting Portsmouth at the Broadfield Stadium. Pompey will be looking to put their off field problems behind them and challenge on the pitch if they too, like Coventry, want to bounce back at the first attempt.
Back to Championship action now and another Friday evening game on the 21st September and a hotly contested London Derby at The Valley where Charlton Athletic take on Crystal Palace. Chris Powell has said he wants to look on how Norwich City and Southampton have had back-to-back promotions from League One and he would very much like to emulate that fate.
Sky Sports have announced a few Friday night games and another takes place a week later at Ewood Park where Blackburn Rovers take on Middlesbrough. Steve Keen would like to give something back to the Venkey’s by making Rovers return to the Premier League at the first attempt. Tony Mowbray would like to get Middlesbrough promoted after being absent from the top flight for three years.
To round off Sky Sports announcement of which games will be shown live, is another Friday night game, and another fierce game with a Yorkshire Derby at Hillsbrough between Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United.
Sky Sports have have announced some impressive games which they have chosen to beam live across the nation and with out question more games to come, The Football League will again provide some entertaining football which has been over- shadowed by the dominance of The Premier League.
