Fixtures 2023/24: QPR Trip Up First For The Hornets
Watford will get their 2023/24 Sky Bet Championship campaign underway away at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday August 5, with the fixture marking the Hornets’ first opening-day clash on the road for seven years.
Making the short journey to West London for his first game in charge, Head Coach Valérien Ismaël will be hoping to end Watford’s four-game winless run against the Rs, with both of last year’s match-ups against them ending in defeat.
Ismaël’s first league outing at Vicarage Road is scheduled for the following week (Saturday August 12), with second-tier newboys Plymouth Argyle visiting Hertfordshire for the first time since April 2010, when a Heiðar Helguson strike proved the difference between the teams.
An away venture to Stoke City (Saturday August 19) and a home game versus Blackburn Rovers (Saturday August 26) close out the first month of play, before a trip to Coventry City (Saturday September 2) and successive Vicarage Road fixtures against Birmingham City (Saturday September 16) and West Bromwich Albion (Wednesday September 20) precede the first battle against one of the relegated sides from the Premier League, Leeds United.
That visit to Elland Road is set to take place on Saturday September 23, while a first meeting of the season against 2015/16 top-flight champions Leicester City is in the diary for Saturday November 25 at the King Power Stadium, two weeks before the Golden Boys are scheduled to entertain Russell Martin’s Southampton (Saturday December 9).
It’s Bristol City at home on Boxing Day – when Watford will look to stretch an unbeaten record against the Robins stretching to August 2017 – just under a week before a long trip to Devon to face Plymouth at Home Park on New Year’s Day.
There are six matches scheduled in a busy April before Ismaël’s charges conclude the 46-game season at last year’s play-off semi-finalists Middlesbrough on Saturday May 4, little over three weeks before the 2023/24 Championship play-off final at Wembley on Sunday May 26.
All fixtures are subject to change and may be rescheduled due to cup competitions and international fixtures. Watford’s clash at QPR is not one of four Championship games selected for Sky Sports coverage across the opening weekend, while the remaining EFL broadcast selections for August will be announced in due course.