Hibs away to start

It's not a great start, although given our home record this year it's probably best that we begin away from St. Mirren Park. With it being Hughes' first game in charge, the Hibs players and supporters will be pretty fired up for this one as they bid to get the new era off to a good start. Still, it could be worse - we could have started with the Old Firm.

The first home game comes a week later against Dundee United. Other gems thrown up by the SPL's C64 (recently upgraded from a Spectrum) include a Boxing Day match against Aberdeen (bit of a trek for them) and a match against Kilmarnock on January 2, both at home. Not too bad - but the SPL have also chucked in a game at Hamilton on December 30. In the evening. Brilliant.

This isn't the only silyness with midweek games. We have Wednesday home games against both halves of the Old Firm in 2010, which should cost us a fair bit of cash.

The final pre-split game is at Falkirk on April 10 and the league is set to finish on the weekend of May 8 and 9 - a fortnight earlier than this season. Do the authorities think we're going to have a World Cup to prepare for?