Town have confirmed that the home derby against Norwich City at Portman Road has moved from Saturday 23rd August to Sunday 24th August, but the Blues’ visit to Carrow Road remains on Saturday 28th February, although having moved to a 2pm start on police advice. The Portman Road game will kick-off at 12 noon unless Sky opt to show it in which case it will switch to 1pm.
Last week, TWTD reported that the home derby was set to switch to the Sunday and that the Canaries were keen to play their game on the Saturday.
Suffolk police subsequently released a statement confirming that they had advised a Sunday move for the Portman Road match: "Suffolk Constabulary can confirm that it has requested that the Football League move the Ipswich v Norwich fixture from Saturday 23th August to lunchtime on Sunday 24th August.
"The request stems from a recommendation contained in a report which examined the policing of the Ipswich v Norwich fixtures in 2011.
"The report concluded that future derby matches should be held on a Sunday lunchtime, to minimise the potential for disorder and disruption to the local community.”
Manager Mick McCarthy says he’s looking forward to facing Norwich as well as another of the relegated Premier League sides, Fulham, on the opening day.
"A bit like last season we’ve got two of the teams who were relegated in the first four games. We had Reading and QPR last year, now we’ve got Fulham and Norwich, big games for us,” he said.
While a fan of Saturday derbies, the Town boss says he understands why the home match has moved to the Sunday: "I think it’s dictated by other forces, generally the police force, not me or the clubs. I’d love to see it on a Saturday.
"I don’t know why we couldn’t play it early on a Saturday, but you can’t do that if there are going to be problems with it. I hope there aren’t but I don’t know.
"Everywhere I’ve been where there have been derbies, whether that’s Wolves and West Brom, Sunderland and Newcastle, Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday, they’re big games and unfortunately they do sometimes provoke a bit of bother, which we don’t want. We just want a good game of football.”
On Friday, Charlton confirmed that their visit to Portman Road has moved from Sunday 28th December to Tuesday 30th December, kicking-off at 7.45pm.
That switch means Town now have an unusually high seven evening Championship home games this season, eight including the Fulham match on the opening Saturday, which kicks-off at 5.15pm for Sky coverage, in addition to a further four away from Portman Road.
The Blues' home game against AFC Bournemouth could be brought forward a day to Good Friday from Saturday 4th April, although as yet there is no confirmation of this, while Town’s Friday 26th December game at Brentford could switch to a 1pm kick-off, as has been the case with Bees’ Boxing Day games in the past.