Danny Wilson has reacted with satisfaction after seeing the schedule his side face in League One next season.

The fixtures for the 2008/2009 campaign were released this morning and the Pools boss has admitted there are some great games to look forward to - starting with a tough opening encounter against Colchester United at Victoria Park.

"It's a difficult one to start with, that's for sure," Wilson commented.

"Colchester have just come down from the Championship and they may still be smarting a bit from that and be fired up to get off to a good start.

"On the flip side of that, sometimes teams that have come down can still be feeling that little bit of disappointment so maybe we can capitalise on that.

"One thing is for sure; they'll be looking at the fixture and thinking that it's a tough way to start the campaign when they want to get off and running quickly."

Click here to see the fixture list for 2008/2009 in full.

Pools will play Leicester City for the first time ever in a league game on September 27^th at the Walkers Stadium and Wilson admits it will be a mouth-watering prospect.

"Whatever time you play Leicester this season it will be hard because of the amount of money they have behind them," he insisted.

"It's fairly early in the season and I'd expect a lot of new players to come in there so maybe they won't have found their feet by then.

"But they'll have a lot of quality in the squad and they'll be hoping it doesn't take them too long to get in to the swing of things."

The boss reckons that the Christmas fixtures have been "kind" on his side this term, with home games against Southend (20/12), Crewe (28/12) and Leicester (03/01) and a visit to Scunthorpe on Boxing Day.

"The good thing is that there is not a lot of travelling involved there obviously so we'll have great support over that period," he explained.

"To go to Scunthorpe on Boxing Day will be an excellent day out for our fans and they won't be travelling from one end of the country to the other so it's great for them and us."

Leeds are the final visitors to Victoria Park in the 2008/2009 season and Gary McAllister's side will be looking to erase memories of a Play-Off Final defeat by securing automatic promotion this time around.

But Wilson says he hopes that things don't always turn out as you expect during the course of a season.

"Let's hope it's Leeds who are coming here to spoil our party rather than the other way around," he said.

"It's always nice to end the home campaign with a big game, which that certainly will be, but I would hope it's a day where we're both battling for something at the top of the league."