The Sky Bet League One fixture schedule was announced on Thursday morning ahead of a marathon season.
The 2022-23 campaign will run for a full 10 months, from July 30 to June 6, with a short break in late November for the World Cup.
Here, the PA news agency has identified some notable runs using an aggregation of leading bookmakers’ odds.
(PA Graphic)
Grecians to make early gains?
Newly-promoted Exeter have been handed one of the gentlest starts, which sees them face four of the six other teams expected to struggle this season before the end of August.
Matt Taylor’s side will need to take advantage of this, however, as they also have one of the toughest closing schedules, facing all of the predicted top four in their final six fixtures.
Pain for the Pilgrims
Plymouth face a difficult opening run of fixtures (Adam Davy/PA)
The Grecians’ Devon rivals Plymouth have been handed a campaign that could tilt in the opposite direction.
Argyle will have faced all of the bookmakers’ predicted top six by the end of September, at which point nobody else will have met more than four of them.
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However, none of their final 10 opponents include a likely promotion challenger while four of their last seven are considered to be among the division’s weakest teams.
Tractor Boys to pull clear?
Ipswich will hope to make the most of a favourable run at the end of the season (Steven Paston/PA)
Ipswich are currently narrow favourites for the League One title and if the automatic promotion race goes down to the wire they could make a late surge.
Four of their final six opponents are expected to be battling relegation this season, including both of their last two.
Meanwhile, the four clubs expected to fill out the final top five are all in action against each other on the final day, potentially denting each others’ hopes.
Early boost for the Brewers
Burton have the chance to make a strong start under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Bradley Collyer/PA)
Burton fell away after a bright start last term and could find themselves among the early pace-setters this time around.
By mid-October they will have already played all of the predicted bottom seven, making them the first team to do so.
The flipside of this generosity from the fixture computer is one of the division’s trickiest run-ins, with all of their last seven opponents expected to finish in the top half of the table.
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