This week Boro’s new head coach talked about a Riverside night that he’ll never forget and the atmosphere that “gave him chills”.
It was Boro’s play-off semi-final second leg against Coventry City a couple of seasons ago when Edwards, then Luton boss, was watching from the stands.
“I saw the Riverside in a completely different light,” he said, looking back.
“I’d never seen it like that before. It was just real passion – I heard it, felt it, and it gave me chills.
“That’s something that will always live me, and that’s something that really attracted me to this place as well. We all want to have that connection with the fans.
“They’re the most important people at any football club – they’re here long before us and they’ll be here long after us as well. We need to respect that and try to make them proud to support their football club.”
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The first day of the season always draws something of a special atmosphere. The anticipation and cautious optimism, the renewal of the Saturday routine, new signings, sunshine, hope.
Swansea City home. It’s by no means an easy game. The Swans finished last season as one of the form sides in the division under Alan Sheehan and remarkably only ended up finishing one place and three points behind Boro. But it’s a home game against a side that have bounced around in mid-table for the last few seasons. It could have been an awful lot worse.
But what then follows…well it’s safe to say Edwards won’t be allowed to ease into life on Teesside. Millwall and Norwich away, Sheffield United home, three teams who, like plenty, will start the campaign with the aim of a top six finish – at least.
According to Opta, Boro have the toughest opening four games in the Championship, with the average rating of their first four opponents coming in at 82.5.
“Using the Opta Power Rankings, we can quantify how easy (or difficult) each team’s opening schedule is,” say Opta, explaining their working out.
“These Power Rankings rate a frankly enormous number of teams (10,000+) across the globe based on a system that scores the current strongest side 100 and the weakest zero. Those scores are then used to rank the teams in order of strongest to weakest.
“Focusing on the Championship, we looked at the average Opta Power Rating of each team’s opponents to measure fixture difficulty.
“These range from Sheffield United (currently the highest-ranked team in the Championship, 69th with an Opta Power Rating of 85.8 and therefore the hardest to play against) to Charlton Athletic (ranked 349th in the world with an Opta Power Rating of 77.7 and therefore the easiest team to play against in England’s second tier).”
Throw in a home game against West Brom and a trip to Southampton before the end of September and Boro will play five of the sides who finished in the top 13 last season, plus one of the three teams coming down.
On the flip side, Norwich underachieved last season and might still be getting to grips with what new boss Liam Manning wants from them, replacing Chis Wilder with Ruben Selles looks like an almighty gamble at Sheffield United, Ryan Mason has taken on his first full time head coach role at West Brom and we’re not to know how Southampton will react after their grim short stay in the Premier League.
Is your glass half full or half empty?
What can’t be disputed is the mammoth treks facing Boro’s faithful in the first couple of months of the season.
Millwall, Norwich, Southampton and Portsmouth all before the second international break of the season in October. That’s 2,224 miles of travelling – excluding the game at Preston and a potential away tie in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
Six of Boro’s eight midweek fixtures are against Charlton, Leicester and Stoke. The away trip to face the Potters comes in January. Insert wet and windy line here.
Coventry are the other midweek visitors to the Riverside. The other midweek away trip is to Sheffield Wednesday.
Given the unpredictable manner of the Championship, it’s so difficult to judge blocks of games, but, on the evidence of last season, December looks relatively kind. Boro face Hull, who narrowly avoided the drop last term, twice, as well as QPR, who languished in the bottom half last season, and newly promoted Charlton Athletic. They’re at home on Boxing Day, though Bristol City away five days before Christmas is hardly ideal for supporters. Tickets for the New Year’s Day trip to Derby will sell out in minutes!
Again, purely on the evidence of last season and the teams you’d expect to be in the mix, February looks particularly testing. The month kicks off with away trips to Sheffield United and Coventry, who finished third and fifth last term, and ends with a home game against Leicester City and a visit to St Andrew’s to face a Birmingham side who have eyes on successive promotions.
Surely Wrexham can’t go straight through another division?
If Sky could pick their TV selections 10 months out, Wrexham Boro on the final day would feel like an absolute certainty.
How will the table look for Boro then? What will be on the line on the final day? How will Edwards’ first season in charge have played out?
