Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson as excited as ever about coming season

Grayson’s side, who won their opening pre-season 2-0 at Radcliffe on Saturday, welcome Port Vale to Poolfoot Farm on this afternoon (1pm).

They know their 2021/22 fixtures for League One as well as their opponents in the Carabao Cup (Stoke City) and Papa John’s Trophy, in which Grayson is looking forward to a family reunion.

Town’s head coach said: “It’s like any season – you’re excited. It’s no different than when I first became a manager.

“You’re always excited about who you’re going to be playing in the first game, the last game, on your birthday, over Christmas.

“In our first group of fixtures there are some really tough ones but you have to play everyone twice over the course of the season anyway.

“The cup competition gets drawn and you’re thinking, ‘We don’t need to be going down there’. Then you’re drawn at Stoke and it’s a good Championship game for us.

“In the Papa John’s Trophy, we’re playing Accrington, Leicester Under-23s and Barrow, who my son has just signed for, so that will be interesting”

Town face a testing start to their league programme but that merely adds to the excitement for Grayson.

He added: “The way we start definitely gets us more up for it. I think Portsmouth, who we play first, are going to be one of the favourites for the division.

“Then it’s Lincoln, who were play-off finalists last year, and Sheffield Wednesday, who were just relegated from the Championship, so it can’t get much tougher.

“After that it’s Cheltenham and you can’t dismiss them – they have just got promoted and will be on a crest of momentum and emotion, so that could prove to be our hardest game.

“It’s just great to see the fixtures. The one we can look forward to is getting Plymouth away out of the way in August!”

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