Steady as you go for starters

JOHN SHERIDAN . . . The Athletic boss welcomes Oxford United on the opening day

ATHLETIC'S start to the season is very much mid-table when it comes to difficulty, statistics show.

John Sheridan's side kick off the new campaign with a four-match run that sees a home game against well-fancied Oxford United, a trip to a Walsall side predicted to struggle in lower mid-table, the hosting of a Wigan outfit thought to be in good shape for an immediate return to the Championship and an away date at Blackpool, tipped for relegation.

The club with the easiest start in Sky Bet League One - on paper at least - is last year's losing play-off finalists Bradford City.

The most difficult month of August is faced equally by Blackburn and Gillingham.

The difficulty of each fixture was worked out by assigning a points score to each club from one to 24, based on the bookies' predictions of success for each side in 2017-18. Blackburn, favourites for the title, get a score of one, while Shrewsbury, tipped to finish bottom, are worth 24 points.

As far as Athletic are concerned, another mixed batch of games in September is followed by a very difficult month of October.

Three of the five games are against clubs expected to finish in the top six - Blackburn (H), Bradford (A) and MK Dons (A) - with home games against big-spending Bury and last season's play-off semi-finalists, Scunthorpe.

It appears that Athletic will need to make the most of their middling start before taking on those seemingly tough encounters.

Sky Bet League One fixture difficulty rankings for August -

Blackburn (1): 8.5; Gillingham (21): 8.5; Plymouth (17): 9; Portsmouth (3): 10.25; Rotherham (12): 10.5; Bury (16): 11.25; MK Dons (6): 11.5; Walsall (19): 11.5; Blackpool (22): 11.5; Bristol Rovers (9): 11.75; Wigan (2): 12; ATHLETIC (23): 12; Fleetwood (14): 12.25; Southend (11): 12.75; Rochdale (15): 12.75; Scunthorpe (8): 13.75; Northampton (20): 13.75; Oxford (5): 14.5; Charlton (7): 14.5; Peterborough (10): 14.5; Shrewsbury (24): 14.5; Wimbledon (18): 14.75; Doncaster (13): 15.5; Bradford (4): 15.75

Club's expected finish in brackets; average expected league position of four opponents in August after colon.