It's Here!

In a return of the first home game of the previous campaign, the Seasiders will take on Gary Johnson's Bristol City on the opening day of the season - the side that lost out to Hull City in the Championship Playoff Final back in May after a remarkable season since promotion from League One.

A 1-1 stalemate at Bloomfield Road last term was followed up by a 1-0 defeat in the return game. Blackpool will certainly be looking forward to improving on the 1 point out of a possible 6 and will be out to prove a point that, even though they were runners up in the Playoffs, we have some quality of our own by the Seaside.

Other key fixtures include that mouth-watering tie against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on the final day of the season on Sunday, May 3rd. Of course, the last time the sides met was in the glorious May sunshine of 2007 where 'Pool came out on top in a 6-3 topsy-turvy game, with Andy Morrell scoring 4 goals in the process to leave us within 1 point of automatic promotion and kill off City's chances of creeping into the playoffs in place of 'Pool's eventual semi-final opponents, Oldham Athletic.

Last season, we travelled to Sheffield to face Sheffield United in what was an eventful game on Boxing Day, with the Tangerines pulling out all the stops with 10 men for around 85minutes to grab a much-deserved 1-1 draw. This season, we travel to the blue side of Sheffield.

Sheffield Wednesday are the hosts come December 26th and personally, I'm delighted that the Boxing Day game will be played away from home once again. Both sides shared the 6 points last season, with a 2-1 victory to each team's name in the fixture but, given the way the away fixture panned out with Wednesday bottom of the table at the time, Seasiders fans will be looking to come away from Hillsborough in much more boyant mood come the end of the 90 minutes this time around!

But what about the Lancashire Derbies?

Well, the first tuesday evening fixture of the new campaign will see the Seasiders travel to the 1960's to face Burnley at Turf Moor on September 16th.

The return leg at Bloomfield Road takes place on March 3rd (another Tuesday evening!).

As far as Preston North End goes, 15th of November is the date, Bloomfield Road is the place. However, fans will have to wait until April 11th for the return leg at Deepdale. Not even the weather could spoil the day for Seasiders fans at the fixture last season, coming out on top 1-0 with a cheeky penalty from Wes Hoolahan to send the Preston fans home, dragging their knuckles across the ground cursing Youle Mawene's 'cut 'em down at the legs' tactics.

So there we have it. The course of the season has been set and many people will now be marking dates in their diaries for away games and, of course, the derby games with Preston and Burnley.

Once again, the season will kick off against Bristol City at Bloomfield Road on August 9th with a 3pm kick-off.

As one member of the forum would say;

ONWARDS + UPWARDS!





For a full list of the fixtures for 2008/2009, click here

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