Town face a trip to face Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus’s Sunderland at the Stadium of Light as their 2023/24 season, their first back in the Championship following their promotion from League One, gets under way at 5pm on the Sunday of the first weekend of the campaign and will be live on Sky.

Town being away on the opening day, Sunday 6th August, is no surprise, the Blues having requested that their first game was on the road to give the pitch, which has undergone a major renovation this summer, more time to bed in.

Former Town defenders Mowbray and Venus, manager and assistant respectively, led Sunderland to sixth in the table last season before losing out to Luton in the play-off semi-finals.

The teams last met in League One in 2021/22 when the Black Cats won 2-0 on Wearside, a month before the teams drew 1-1 in Suffolk. Blues striker Nathan Broadhead was on loan with Sunderland during that season as they won promotion and scored in the Portman Road match.

Coincidentally, Town’s last Championship season, 2018/19, began with a game against a side managed by Mowbray, a 2-2 home draw with his Blackburn team.

The Blues will be in Carabao Cup first-round action on the Wednesday - the draw is at 2.30pm this afternoon - before Stoke City, where Harry Clarke was on loan during the first half of last season, visit Portman Road for the first home game of the season on Saturday 12th August.

QPR away is up next for Town, Saturday 19th August, then Leeds United, recently relegated from the Premier League, at home a week later and, after the second round of the Carabao Cup, Cardiff City are in Suffolk for September’s first match prior to the first international break of the season.

The second month of the season continues with a visit to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 16th September, then a midweek match at Southampton, another of the relegated teams, on the Tuesday.

Blackburn are at Portman Road on Saturday 23rd September before the month ends with a visit to Huddersfield Town on Saturday 30th September.

The first East Anglian derby against Norwich City since the 2018/19 campaign is currently scheduled for Saturday 16th December at Portman Road, although the games have usually moved to Sundays in the past. The trip to Carrow Road is currently set for Saturday 6th April.

At Christmas, the Blues are off to Elland Road to face Leeds on Saturday 23rd December, then are at home to the third relegated former Premier League side, Leicester City, on Boxing Day and then host QPR three days later before a New Year’s Day visit to Stoke City.

Town are back to entering the FA Cup at the third round stage with those ties play on or around Saturday 6th January.

At Easter, Town travel to Blackburn on Good Friday, 29th March, before Southampton are at Portman Road on Easter Monday.

The Norwich away game follows as the Blues go into a run-in in which they play Watford at home on Wednesday 10th April, and Middlesbrough, who are managed by boss Kieran McKenna’s close friend and former Manchester United colleague Michael Carrick, also at Portman Road on Saturday 13th April, then back-to-back away matches at Coventry City and Hull City on Saturday 20th and Saturday 27th April respectively.

The season ends with Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield Town visiting Portman Road on Saturday 4th May.

In addition to the visit to Southampton in September, the Blues are away in midweek when they travel to Bristol City on Wednesday 25th October, Watford on Tuesday 12th December and Millwall on Wednesday 14th February.

A full list of Town’s fixtures for the 2023/24 season can be found here.

Photo: Action Images

Gilesy added 09:04 - Jun 22 Fantastic!
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Unhinged_dynamo added 09:04 - Jun 22 Happy with that! A proper championship game in a big stadium. And good to see mogga and Venus again
4

MickMillsTash added 09:12 - Jun 22 Sunday 5pm Sunderland Jeepers Man City have just had the KO time of the charity shield moved from 5.30 to 4 due to stupid scheduling - on the same day.
4

AYACCA added 09:16 - Jun 22 100 points 102 goals, keep improving...
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blues1 added 09:19 - Jun 22 Tough start and as usual, sky showing their total disregard for fans, who'll get home late on tbe Sunday night and have to go to work next morning. Doesn't affect me as in retired but not good for those who do.
9

1960H added 09:19 - Jun 22 Crappie kick off time for travelling supporters, bloody sky no consideration for away fans as usual
6

Help added 09:23 - Jun 22 Norwich away 6th April. They will be on a second manager and nothing to play for by then.
3

Europablue added 09:24 - Jun 22 One away game doesn't give the pitch much more time. Hopefully, we'll be drawn away for the League Cup.
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barrystedmunds added 09:29 - Jun 22 I feckin detest Sky!!! Great to see us named in a “proper” fixture list at long last!!!
4

Help added 09:38 - Jun 22 Expect to see many a game altered for TV and the fixture list torn to shreds over the coming season
3

chorltonskylineblue added 09:39 - Jun 22 Europablue - the club requested 2 opening away games but were granted only one
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Paulc added 09:39 - Jun 22 Big game to start so we can just get straight into it! 5pm on a school night at Sunderland is no worse than any midweek game that kicks off at 7.45pm (other than Plymouth obviously) and it's on TV if it's that big an issue. I like our run in, could've been a lot worse. Gonna be a long 6 weeks!
2

churchmans added 09:45 - Jun 22 It is going to be a wild ride! Memories and moments to be made,strap in and enjoy the ride to the title yeeee boshhh
2

kiwiblue added 09:56 - Jun 22 will sky games be allowed live on i follow or the new version? Asking as cant make many games and worried loads will be on sky
1

Karlosfandangal added 10:01 - Jun 22 This will be a tough season…. Let's hope the fans don't get on the teams back when we are not winning week in week out….. I can see a couple of seasons in the championship as KMK builds a team to challenge and stay in the Prem
4

Lightningboy added 10:04 - Jun 22 Live on "Sky" 🙈
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Europablue added 10:16 - Jun 22 I'm really anxious to hear news about Town TV so that I can get myself set up ready for a new exciting season.
1

d77sgw added 10:43 - Jun 22 Already planning the Valentines Day trip to Millwall for the missus.... (I'm such a romantic!)
5

Orraman added 11:01 - Jun 22 We know that it's not going to be an easy ride but that is a tough opening first few games. That said definitely much more exciting than waiting for Accrington, Forest Green etc to turn up and park their buses on our pristine new turf. So much to look forward to and really hope the usual negative posters give the team some leeway if things get off to a slow start
3

blues1 added 11:43 - Jun 22 Europblue. Plenty of time for the pitch really. Still another 7 weeks until Stoke match. And have already requested the cup game to be away
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blues1 added 11:46 - Jun 22 Chorltonskyline blue. No, they only asked for the 1 lge game and the cup game to be away. Think they probably hoped that the 1st lge game would come out as a home tie, thus be switched with the away fixture, so would be away for 2 games. But under the rules you can only request 1 game. Stupid rule really. Dont see the point of it.
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TimmyH added 11:55 - Jun 22 No not SKY!!...But deserve to put one over the black cats as they lived up to their name the last time we played them at the Stadium of Light.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 12:06 - Jun 22 Wow! Sunderland away is a tough opener. They will be up for it. A point there would make me very happy. Suddenly, the fixture list looks quite daunting: no more Morcambe, Forest Green, or Lincoln, etc. but Leeds, Leicester, Stoke, etc. instead. Still, this is where we want to be (at the moment at least). COYB!
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Facefacts added 14:42 - Jun 22 We will need a bit more steel in the midfield for this one. Morsy, Luongo and a new signing?
3

Pessimistic added 15:02 - Jun 22 We have to face the music and it does not matter one jot who we face, provided we are good enough to win a lot of these games in one league away from the Prem.
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