Back at home in the Championship next season as we look at the trips that the fixture list has thrown up for us
By the time Charlton fans file into The Valley on an August afternoon to welcome Watford for an early kick-off, it will have been five long years since we last felt the rhythms of a Championship season. Now, after the joy and drama of our playoff triumph in May, the Addicks are finally back amongst the bigger boys, if not quite the senior class just yet.
We carry with us fond, if mixed, memories of League One — debates over disputable refereeing decisions, the limitations of transfer windows at this level, and magical moments such as late winners against Leyton Orient, which somehow felt Premier in nature if not in name. That chapter had its merits and like everything in hindsight, we can look back on parts of it fondly. But this season gives us a chance to ride trains, planes, boats, bikes and automobiles through the landscape of the Championship once again.
This year’s fixture list feels less like a schedule and more like a sprawling railway map, stretching from the valleys of South Wales to the steelworks of South Yorkshire, with SE7 at its heart. It all begins with that first weekend against Watford. That's followed swiftly by a trip to Bristol City who are now the most westerly English-based team in the Championship. By a nose from Preston North End by our estimation!
Then comes Leicester City — no longer Premier League giants nor fairy-tale upstarts, but a symbol of football’s volatility. Their fall from grace reminds us that past glories are no more of an insurance in this division than they were in League One. But as Sunderland will testify with their quick fire promotions, the rise can be rapid, if the stars align.
We end August away to Queen’s Park Rangers, when plenty of away fans will flock to Shepherd’s Bush for a tidy London clash — one that whets the appetite for the grass of local rivalries to come.
September begins with the greatest of all South East London rivalries. That fixture. Millwall at home on the 13th. It’s always a fixture that tightens the sword on the chest, but one where we haven’t the best of records in recent times. We then go to the sword against one of the promotion favourites a week later when we visit Sheffield United, before hosting Blackburn. And since we ended August in Shepherd's Bush, we end September visiting The Rams of Derby County.
October sees us at home just once. Sheffield Wednesday drop by mid-month to renew old acquaintance. Around that, we clock up the miles to Preston, Ipswich and Hull. There’s a certain charm to it, in fairness. Setting off in the October mist, clutching a petrol station coffee and a squashed almond croissant, trying to remember if it’s the A1 or M11 this time. Then, many hours (and multiple talking points of the day) later, you’re crawling back down the motorway amidst the post match traffic of two dozen other clubs — exhausted or elated — with the radio on full blast to find out how the rivals have done. Hopefully, by then, we’ll have made a decent start and be heading into November with an expectation of fireworks to come, not a Halloween horror show.
November opens with Swansea City at home — a side we’ll also meet on the final day. Like Leicester, they’ve had their time in the Premier League and now linger in this strange limbo of ambition and reset. Then comes West Brom under the lights and maybe in more senses than one if the fixture gets shifted to . That's followed by a trip to Wrexham, last season’s co-stars in our Hollywood storied promotion race. This time round, could we both be heading towards a mid table sub plot? Time will tell. By then we will be fifteen games into the Championship season.
Then on the 22nd of November, Southampton — another side parachuted down from the Premier League — come to The Valley. After that litmus test for our ambitions we travel to Stoke and Coventry in a week of tough fixtures, Both of those are clubs where memories of better days still hum beneath the surface. This is the Championship: a league full of teams with deep histories, long memories, and no guarantees. Maybe we will also find it to be a league where fans have long memories too. No doubt Southampton and Stoke haven't forgotten their history with a certain Nathan Jones so we'd best have a good turnout to shout his name particularly loudly and proudly in both these matches.
December begins with something special. We host Portsmouth at The Valley, timed around the anniversary of our return home. A fixture laced with meaning, one that needs little narrative. And would a Friday night switch be welcomed for once if it meant hosting Portsmouth on December 5th, with all the echoes of history? Maybe we should start a campaign to make the 5th of December a Bank Holiday within a 512 mile radius of Charlton, and then have a 3pm kick off on the holiday!
Up next, Middlesbrough are in town midweek at a time when it will not just be cold up north but likely cold down south too. That rolls us on towards a trip to Birmingham and then a home game against Oxford before we head into the festive fixtures.
On Boxing Day we head up to Norwich to face the Canaries, at a time when others are thinking about turkey. hen it’s down to Fratton Park to face Portsmouth again — as if it’s a two-legged cup tie, the return leg arriving fast, wrapped in history and that familiar sense of unfinished business. 2026 opens at home to Coventry, then it’s a freezing trip to Blackburn, before Sheffield United and Derby come to The Valley. Sheffield United’s visit in January will stir memories of that pivotal 2011–12 season, when the temperature was cold as a blade and fans sang Ched Evans songs to warm themselves and to give our opponents a fierce welcome in a vital 6-pointer promotion battle.
On January 24th, we head to Millwall. Even if the sun shines, it’ll feel wintry in the away end. All we’ll want is to leave with the points, and perhaps a sense that we’ve finally turned that page.
February lines up QPR, Southampton, Stoke, West Brom, and Wrexham the kind of run that shapes league tables and reveals character. By now, every result feels just a little more momentous and more telling of how the season's story is likely to end. March begins with Birmingham at The Valley, before tough trips to Middlesbrough and Oxford. Then Norwich again, on the 21st. These weeks will test depth, confidence, and belief.
April is frantic. Bristol City, Watford, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich, and Hull. Six games as the season races toward its final act. On April 18th, we visit Hillsborough to face Sheffield Wednesday, another familiar rival in battles for promotion. A place of sombre memories too in light of the date. And by now, with three games to go, this could well be one of those matches that has everything to play for, with promotions and relegations usually decided in these post-Easter weeks.
Perhaps fortunately, two out of our last three games are at home against Ipswich Town and Hull City. You get a sneaky feeling that if one of these is a six pointer, we will be with Ipswich in the promotion pack or fighting Hull at the other end. However, as Luton have proved in 2 out of 3 seasons past, unpredictable things can happen in a Championship season.
That's why we can have no real idea where we are going to stand in the table come the last game of the season against Swansea City on the first weekend of May. Whether we arrive there chasing something glorious or simply finishing the journey with heads held high (and preferably above the relegation zone), it will mark the close of a campaign defined by movement — geographical, emotional, and symbolic.
From the south coast to Swansea, from Millwall to Middlesbrough, Charlton’s return to the Championship isn’t just a fixture list. It’s a social and sporting odyssey. It's one that reminds us of going back to The Valley. And returning to the Championship. But while May's promotion brought us back, it’s the journey ahead that will show just how far we’ve come.
Roll on the 46 games, the goals to be scored and the pints, pre-match coffees or half time teas to be drink, drank or drunk (depending how many we have had). The tinder is stacked and ready for the spark of kick off at Watford. And as for the uncertainty around dates, which are subject to change, here's an explainer from the EFL.