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.