City continue their 2025/26 Sky Bet League One campaign with a trip to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday 9 August (3pm KO).
City opened the season with a highly impressive 2-0 success over Reading at the LNER Stadium, with goals from Rob Street and Reeco Hackett in either half sealing the win.
They will now head to the newly-promoted Dons for their first away outing of their third tier season.
Michael Skubala’s thoughts:
“Against Reading we were dominant without the ball, good with the ball and the game plan went to plan. Coming off the pitch, I thought to a man and as a team the performance was really really strong
"I went to watch them at Luton Town on Friday night and thought they were very good, the sort of team that are hard to break down, very disciplined in how they do things and will win tight games like they did last season.
"We know it’s going to be a tough game because they’ve just been promoted and it’s their first home game of the season. I thought they had a really good disciplined way about them against Luton. We’ll look after what we do and try to get three points."
Tom Bayliss:
“It’s always nice to get off to a good start last week. It was a good performance from the lads and I think we thoroughly deserved to win.
“Wimbledon look really hard to beat, really physical and did well against a strong Luton side that you’d think will push for promotion this year so we know what’s to come and we’ll be up for the task.
“It’s really good role for me, I feel like I can do a bit of both and you’re always in the game in that position so hopefully I can affect more games and get my numbers up as well so I’m really enjoying it."
Opposition information:
AFC Wimbledon returned to Sky Bet League One for the first time in three seasons after winning promotion via the play-offs last term. A goal from Myles Hippolyte was enough to secure a 1-0 win over Walsall at Wembley.
The Dons began their campaign with a tough assignment away at relegated Luton Town and were agonisingly close to leaving Kenilworth Road with a hard fought share of the spoils, until Ryan Johnson was forced to turn the ball into his own goal with just five minutes remaining.
A key foundation of Wimbledon's promotion from League Two last year was their strong home form, with only fellow promoted side enjoying a better record on home soil than Johnnie Jackson's side, who were only beaten five times at the Cherry Red Records Stadium in the league.
Match information:
City will be wearing their third kit for the first time in a competitive outing - make sure you get yours HERE!
Matthew Russell will be the man in the middle on Saturday with Alex Bradley and Kevin Howick playing the role of assistant referees with Lewis Sandoe as the fourth official.
