First day of the season: Millwall away, August 3rd – a trip to London awaits North End on the opening day. After hammering the Lions 3-1 at The New Den earlier this year, Alex Neil will be looking for a repeat performance to kick off the campaign.
First home game of the season: Wigan Athletic, August 10th – it’s an exciting first home game, as Wigan come to Deepdale in a North West battle. It’s another fixture North End thrived in last season, beating the Latics 4-0 in October.
The rest of the first six: August is a month that could go either way for North End. After Millwall and Wigan, it’s Swansea City away, Stoke City at home, Sheffield Wednesday at home and Nottingham Forest away. There’s no massively daunting prospect in there, and we’ll hopefully make a better start than last season.
Blackburn Rovers encounters: I guess this is our biggest derby with Burnley and Blackpool in different divisions, so here are the dates for both games – Saturday the 26th of October at Deepdale, and Saturday the 11th of January at Ewood Park. Expect kick off times to be affected.
The London trips: North End often take huge followings down to London, and some will already be preparing for Millwall on the opening day. After that, we have four more trips to the capital; Charlton Athletic on November 2nd, Queens Park Rangers on December 7th, Fulham on February 29th and Brentford on April 18th.
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The festive period: Games over Christmas and New Year see North End travel to Leeds United on Boxing Day, with many fans no doubt looking for a trip to Elland Road after the Christmas Day celebrations. Reading visit Deepdale on December 29th, before we host Middlesbrough on New Year’s Day to kick off 2020.
Save your pennies for February: North End always take a great away following, but February looks like it could hit your wallet hard. There are four away games scheduled for February, and all are games where we’d usually take big followings; Wigan Athletic (Saturday, February 8th), Stoke City (Wednesday, February 12th), West Bromwich Albion (Tuesday, February 25th) and Fulham (Saturday, February 29th).
Final day of the season: Preston travel down to Bristol City on the final day of the campaign, rounding out the season. North End’s record at Ashton Gate has been sensational in recent years, and no matter what the situation, will be looking to end the season strongly with another away win over the Robins.