Championship new boys meet in opening day fixture

Championship new boys Wycombe will host Rotherham in their first-ever match in the Championship on the opening weekend the new season.

This will be Wycombe’s first ever season in England’s second tier and it is very impressive they have come this far under Gareth Ainsworth considering just over six years ago they were nearly dropped out of the English Football League.

Relegated trio Bournemouth, Norwich and Watford will be looking to make a quick return to the Premier League but it is not going to be easy.

Bournemouth and Watford, both under new managers, start off at home to Blackburn and Middlesbrough respectively while Norwich are away at Huddersfield.

Brentford will be aiming to put the disappointment of losing in the play-off final against Fulham with a trip to Birmingham.

Coventry, who were made League One champions after using the points per game ruling, travel to Bristol City.

Due to pandemic neither the Sky Blues nor Rotherham have played a competitive game in six months as League One was originally suspended on 13 March.

It was decided that the bottom two leagues would be stopped after a vote by clubs in June.

The automatic places had been confirmed but the play-offs still went ahead with Wycombe beating Oxford at an empty Wembley to win promotion.

Due to on-going issues with Premiership rugby union club Wasps, Coventry are unable to return to the Ricoh Arena and will once again be ground-sharing with Birmingham City.

The opening fixtures are:

All matches currently scheduled for Saturday, 12 September at 15:00 BST

▪   AFC Bournemouth v Blackburn Rovers
▪   Barnsley v Luton Town
▪   Birmingham City v Brentford
▪   Bristol City v Coventry City
▪   Cardiff City v Sheffield Wednesday
▪   Derby County v Reading
▪   Huddersfield Town v Norwich City
▪   Millwall v Stoke City
▪   Preston North End v Swansea City
▪   Queens Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest
▪   Watford v Middlesbrough
▪   Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United