The fixtures are out, but what can we take from the  make-up for Rovers’ 2020/21 schedule?

THINKING OF THE WINDOW

The final chance for Rovers to strengthen their squad will come when the second of the two transfer window closes at 5pm on Friday, October 16.

With an international break coming on the weekend of October 10/11, it means before then Rovers will play just four league matches.

The Carabao Cup rounds one to four will be played across September, meaning it’s four consecutive Saturday Championship fixtures for Rovers before the first international break.

Three weeks out from their first game Rovers are yet to add to their squad, and are highly unlikely to have completed all of their business before the opening game at Bournemouth on September 12.

They won’t be alone, with the Championship market slow to get going, and managers will be grateful about the lack of league fixtures before the window shuts.

With another international break in November, the real rush will come from November 21, with 12 games, and 36 points to play for, between then and January 2.

Being settled by then, and enjoying a could run during that period, could well prove crucial.

WHEN WILL FANS BE BACK?

There wasn’t the same feel about fixture release day, with fans looking through a list of matches they don’t know whether they'll be able to watch live.

It won’t quite be the 550-mile round trip to the south coast for Rovers fans on the opening day, with the Bournemouth fixture expected to be taken in via streaming platform iFollow in a front room that they will have been well acquainted with since last watching their side in a stadium.

It will be a fourth consecutive long away trip for Rovers, who finished last season with jaunts to Cardiff, Millwall and Luton.

The hope is that by October some fans could be allowed back into stadiums. With the way the games have panned out, before the international break on October 10, there are just two home Ewood matches.

The FA have announced the possibility of fans being present for those Nations League matches, giving hope that the EFL could follow suit.

By the end of that that month they will be up to four home matches, but with November starting with back-to-back home games, fingers crossed there will be positive news by then.

How, when, and how many, are the biggest questions that remain unanswered about fans returning to stadiums.

MIDWEEK MATCHES

With a delayed start to the Championship season, and a need to have it concluded in time for Euro 2020, which was pushed back a year, there was always going to be a need for increased midweek fixtures.

In all there are 13 in the Championship, with two Easter fixtures scheduled for Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Seven of the midweek matches are away, six are at home, but the distance travelled isn’t all that bad.

There’s the trip to Watford on Wednesday, October 21, Preston North End on Tuesday, November 24, Bristol City on Tuesday, November 24 and then rounding off the year on Tuesday, December 29 is a visit to Huddersfield Town.

First up in 2021 is a midweek visit to Barnsley on Wednesday, February 17 before a third midweek trip in four years to Reading on Tuesday, March 2.

With a Good Friday trip to Wycombe Wanderers scheduled as well, Rovers’ final midweek away match is at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, April 20.

So with two south Yorkshire Tuesday night away days, an 88-mile round trip, and the shortest journey of the season to Preston, it’s not all that bad when it comes to the midweek travelling.

WRETCHED OPENING DAY RUN

We weren’t the first to mention this, the club’s official website having won the prize for declaring the upcoming season will mark 10 years since Rovers last won on the opening day.

Since then it’s been a pretty wretched time, defeat at Southend United on the first fixture in League One and then losing at home to newly-promoted Charlton Athletic last time out.

Tony Mowbray’s other opening day fixture also ended in disappointment, Ipswich Town coming up with a last minute equaliser to deny Rovers an opening day win in 2018.

This time they face a trip to recently-relegated Bournemouth, the Cherries back in the second tier after five consecutive Premier League seasons.

It’s been a summer of change at The Vitality Stadium. Long-serving Eddie Howe departed as manager, replaced by his No.2 Jason Tindall, while goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and central defender Nathan Ake have moved on for combined fees in the region of £60m.

Here’s hoping before September 12 that a few more might have moved on, giving Rovers the best possible chance of winning on the opening day so we’re not sat here at the same time next year writing about Nikola Kalinic’s goal against Everton on the opening day of the 2010/11 being the last time they started with a win.

An away start was always expected, given the way Burnley’s fixtures panned out, with the two clubs not playing at home on the same day.

That will have granted Tony Mowbray his wish, the manager an advocate of seeing the opening day as a leveller and feeling an away trip is the better option.