Our countdown to the start of the new season continues...
There are just 50 days – or, if you like, seven whole Monday-to-Friday weeks to get through – until the Town kick-off the new season back in the Football League on 9th August.
If you’ve been lucky enough to be away on holiday you may have missed the news on Wednesday that next season’s fixtures were released to the world.
Just like at the start of the League 2 (Division 3 as it was then) promotion campaign of 2001/02, the Hatters have been handed an away trip to Carlisle United on the opening day of the season. The Town were victorious that particular day 13 years ago, winning 2-0 courtesy of second half goals from debutantes Carl Griffiths and Paul Hughes.
Back to the present, and the day before the League 2 fixture list hit the official website, the Town drew League 1 Swindon out of the hat in the first round draw of the Capital One (aka League) Cup. Both clubs have lifted the League Cup before in its previous guises but go head-to-head at Kenilworth Road in what will be the Hatters’ first home game of the new season on Tuesday 12th August.
The Hatters then have two successive home matches in League 2, beginning with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday 16th August before taking on promotion favourites Bury on Tuesday 19th.
Other matches which stood out on the fixture list included a Boxing Day trip to Wycombe Wanderers and the final away game of the season at Southend. The season concludes with a home game against near neighbours Stevenage on 2nd May.
Those games seem a long way off right now, but 50 days is all we have to wait for the Cumbrian curtain raiser. Don’t worry…it’ll come round soon enough.