Blackburn Rovers have a great opportunity to get points on the board early on in The 2025/26 Championship season.
Valerien Ismael's side start the campaign against one of his former clubs in West Brom before hosting Birmingham City at Ewood Park. Trips to Hull City and Watford are either side of East Anglian duo, Norwich City and Ipswich Town, making the long journey to Lancashire.
Whilst The Tractor Boys will be strong and are early title favourites, it is not a start that installs huge fear into supporters. It could be argued that playing Birmingham early on, at home, is also better as they try and find their feet in the division. It's also likely that they won't have finished all of their transfer business.
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After that, it's a tripleheader of Charlton, Swansea and Stoke before the second international break which again offers a good opportunity to build on what is hopefully a quick start. November has a winnable set of games too against Derby, Preston, QPR and Wrexham in quick succession.
The Christmas period is often a period a defining one and tests the depth and quality of any Championship squad. It is where Rovers have fallen down in the last two seasons.
Yet, there are no ridiculously tough fixtures this time around. Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford United and Portsmouth are all expected to be in the bottom half. Middlesbrough are a little bit unknown after changing from Rob Edwards to Michael Carrick. Alex Neil will have Millwall well-organised but it's a home game so again, there is no big fear factor.
Even the start of 2026 offers back-to-back home games against two of the newly-promoted clubs. Nobody knows exactly how strong Wrexham will be but they're not the worst game to have when the schedule becomes congested and the games pile up.
The obvious caveat is that in the second half of the season, things get tougher. April looks particularly daunting if Rovers are, as is hoped, involved in the thick of a play-off battle. There are long trips to Norwich, Ipswich and Swansea too in relatively quick succession.
Birmingham, West Brom, Coventry City, Sheffield United and Southampton will all expect to be challenging for play-offs or better, meaning there is little rest bite in the crunch period of the season. Leicester City, as final-day opponents, could have plenty to play for too if they're chasing promotion back to The Premier League.
Over the course of a 46-game season, you ultimately end up where you deserve to be. You play everyone twice and that will never change, I get it. But for those looking to dig a little deeper, I think the computer has been relatively kind in the opening months of the season.
It's now a challenge for Rudy Gestede's recruitment team to ensure the squad is ready and for Ismael to implement his philosophy in time for a quick start.
The new season will be here before you know it.
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