July
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The 2001-2002 season will be Cardiff City's 75th in the English
League.  How have City fared in the first 74 season openers?  Here's
the data, along with other stats on City's opening day performances:

* City's all-time record on opening day shows 17 wins, 28 draws, and
29 losses.  At Ninian Park, the all-time mark is 10-14-11.  Away from
home, City's record is 7-14-18.

* Since World War II, City have won 12 league openers. That's in 55
tries. The overall mark: 12 wins, 24 draws, 19 losses. At home the
overall mark is 7-14-9, the away record 5-10-10.

* City have won league openers in successive seasons only twice. City
began the 1933-34 and 1934-45 seasons with wins, winning at Watford
2-1, then beating Charlton at Ninian Park by the same score.  The only
other time City put back-to-back opening day wins together came in
1969-70 (a 3-2 win at Carlisle) and 1970-71 (a 1-0 win at Leicester).
A win last year at Exeter gives City the opportunity to match this
less than spectacular feat on Saturday.  Three points against Wycombe
would give City the chance to begin next year with a feat never before
achieved in Bluebird history -- opening day wins in three successive
seasons.

* While the overall mark of 17-28-29 is not too terribly special,
City have at least managed to run off a string of six straight without
defeat in the last half dozen openers.  The two wins and four draws
represent the longest unbeaten string since City's run of six without
a loss from 69-70 to 74-75 (3 wins, 3 losses).  City's longest
unbeaten opening day string is seven (3 wins and 4 draws), beginning
with a 3-2 home win over Liverpool to start the 1959-60 campaign and
including a 1-0 home win over Bury to kick off the 1965-66 season.
City can match that mark on Saturday.

* Since beating Luton Town 2-1 to start the 1972-73 campaign, City
have won but one Ninian opener.  That's right -- one win over a span
of 28 years!  That win came in 1993-94, a 2-0 triumph over Orient.
Since 1972-73, City's mark at home in opening-of-the-season league
matches is a none-too-robust one win, 8 draws, 6 losses.

* On the other hand, City have not lost a home opener since the 2-1
loss to Lincoln at Ninian to start the 1991-92 season.  Since then,
City have won once and drawn three times in league openers played at
home.

* City's best period of openers covers 11 seasons, from 1955-56 thru
1965-66.  During that stretch City won 4, lost but once, and drew 6.
Another decent but longer stretch covered a quarter century, from
1950-51 thru 1974-75.  These 25 openers show 8 wins, 12 draws, and 5
losses.

* City's worst extended run of openers spans 20 years, from 1973-74
thru 1992-93.  During these two-decade-long stretch, City won once,
drew 9, and lost 10.  The only win during this period was a 4-1 away
win at Notts County to open the 1985-86 campaign.

* City's biggest win in a league opener? That would be the 4-0
thrashing of Leicester City on August 18, 1951. City would win
promotion to Division One that year and a return to top-division
football for the first time in 23 years.

* The most City goals in an opener is five, in their first ever match
as a member of the football league, at Stockport, on August 28, 1920!
Amazing!

* City's worst opening day defeat was administered by Crystal Palace
at Ninian Park, to kick off the 1968-69 campaign.  City lost that day
4-0.  City have never conceded more than four goals in an opener.
That's happened seven times, though, the last time coming at the start
of the 1995-95 season when Stockport put four past City en route to a
4-1 lambasting of the Bluebirds.

* The highest scoring league opener came on August 18, 1962, when
City and Newcastle United battled to a 4-4 draw at Ninian Park.

* There have been no less than eleven 0-0 league openers.  Among the
more notable scoreless draws were an August 23, 1947 Ninian Park
nil-niller with Chesterfield (to mark City's return to the Second
Division after an absence of 17 years), a 0-0 affair on August 18,
1956 at Arsenal, and the 1957-58 opener at Ninian against Swansea
(City's only opener against the Swans since WWII).  Among the more
dubious were two goalless openers against Scarborough in the '90s,
both at Ninian Park.  Oddly enough, City had gone 25 years without
playing to a 0-0 draw in an opener before the string was snapped with
the first of the scoreless draws against Scarborough, to begin the
1990-91 campaign.

* City have spent seven seasons in the top flight of the league since
WWII, but only once in those seven campaigns did City get to open at
home. That opener came in 1955-56, when the Bluebirds blasted
Sunderland 3-1.  Sunderland's visit to Cardiff that day marked, as
well, the last time an FA Cup semifinalist from the previous season
appeared in a Ninian Park lid lifter.  That will change this Saturday,
however, when last season's semifinalists, Wycombe Wanderers provide
the opposition!

* City have hosted defending FA Cup champions in season openers on
two occasions.  Ninian Park provided the venue when City opened the
1921-22 season against 1920-21 cup winners Tottenham Hotspur, and
again in 1923-24 when the Bluebirds hosted Bolton Wanderers, the
winners of the famous 1923 "White Horse" final.   Spurs won the
1921-22 opener 1-0, but two years later City bested Bolton 3-2.

* City had to start out away from home in six of their seven postwar
top-division openers, but once the Bluebirds were relegated to
Division 2 in 1962-63 they got to play seven straight league openers
at home.  Odd or what?

* How have City done in openers level by level?  In openers to kick
off First Division campaigns, City show 3 wins, 7 draws, and 5
defeats.  The record for Second Division openers stands at 8-12-12.
The third-tier mark (Div 3-S, Old Div 3, New Div 2) is 4-2-11.  (In
postwar third-tier openers the figure is 2-1-5).  City's record in
dungeon openers shows 2 wins, 7 draws, and a loss.

* And finally. How have City fared in league openers following
promotion-winning campaigns?  Well, not all that well. Overall, the
mark is one win, three draws, and five losses.  The only such win was
the 2-0 Orient win at Ninian Park on August 14, 1993, City's
one-and-only league opener won at home since 1972-73.

John Heyda