How difficult Mansfield Town’s opening 2026/27 fixtures have been deemed compared to Leicester, Luton and rest of League One

Mansfield Town learned their upcoming schedule this week as they prepare for another entertaining season in League One.

Stags will be looking to push on from this year’s historic tenth-place finish and the topic of whether they can challenge for a promotion play-off spot is being heavily debated.

Nigel Clough’s side are expected to run into tough competition, including the arrival of Leicester City, who were relegated from the Championship in May. The Foxes have already been listed as favourites to go straight back up to the second tier next summer.

But like any other team, Leicester must fight their way through a busy and competitive schedule – the question is, who has got it the toughest in the early stages?

Following Fixture Release Day, each League One club has been ranked based on the difficulty level of their first opponents for 2026/27. Using the Elo system, all 24 clubs have been ordered according to the average difficulty of their first five and and ten games of the upcoming season, via compare.bet research.

Elo rating scores difficulty between zero and 100, calculated using thousands of historical games and factoring in home or away advantage.

Opening 2026/27 League One fixtures ranked by difficulty

Stags’ first match against Doncaster Rovers has been deemed one of the easier opening fixtures, with a score of 27.5. Meanwhile, Donny’s version of the clash has been rated a 74.6 difficulty as they prepare for a trip to the One Call Stadium.

The team with the ‘easiest’ opener is Huddersfield Town, who face AFC Wimbledon at home with a mere 8.7 difficulty rating. At the other end of the scale, Stockport County have the ‘hardest’ task of facing Plymouth Argyle on the road, ranked at a hefty 88.2.

How difficult are Mansfield Town’s first ten League One games?

After Mansfield Town face Doncaster, they are up against Peterborough, Luton Town, Reading and Bradford. This run of first five fixtures is ranked more in the middle of the table, with a difficulty rating of 51.2.

The following five games then balance things out again for Stags. Overall, their first ten games of the upcoming League One season have been given a 42.9 out of 100 difficulty rating – the fifth lowest out of all the clubs. Only Cambridge, Huddersfield, Stevenage and Bromley have been determined to have ‘easier’ paths.

Stockport, who have the ‘trickiest’ opening game against Plymouth, also have the ‘hardest’ opening run. Take a look below at how the opening run of ten games has been ranked in difficulty for each League One club.

Stephen Thirkill gives his take on Mansfield Town's fixtures for the 2026/27 League One season