Our first game of the season, for the third season running, has been selected for live Sky Sports coverage. United's fixture with Cardiff City away has been moved from Saturday 7th August to Sunday 8th because of live television coverage. The kick-off is strangely 12:35PM! There are no trains from Sheffield to Cardiff which arrive in time for kick-off, so again fans will find it difficult to get down there.
Last season, the Blades' curtain raiser with Middlesbrough was outrageously brought forward to a Friday night, and the season before that our encounter with Birmingham City was moved to an earlier kick-off because of Sky coverage.
For the past SIX SEASONS (excluding the 2007/2008 season where we played Colchester on the first game), the Blades have been televised on their opening games of their seasons:
2005/2006 - Leicester City (H)
2006/2007 - Liverpool (H)
2008/2009 - Birmingham City (A)
2009/2010 - Middlesbrough (A)
2010/2011- Cardiff City (A)
Meanwhile, our clash with Derby County on Saturday 11th September has been brought forward from a 3:00PM kick-off to a 1:00PM kick-off due to police advice. This, incidentally, happened last year too.
Here are the fixture changes: