PAUL Stapleton has welcomed the Pilgrims' "very attractive and exciting fixture-list."

The Argyle chairman is pleased, amongst other things, that we will be at home to Barnsley on the final day of the 2008-09 Coca-Cola Championship campaign.

"I did hope that would be the case," he said. "Going to Wolves on the final day of last season was an anti-climax for us.

"Who knows what we might need when we play Barnsley on May 3?"

The chairman is also pleased that there has been no repeat of last season's gruelling midweek schedule, when we travelled to Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and Scunthorpe for Tuesday night games.

One of the most daunting away trips comes in October, when we play both Sheffield clubs in Yorkshire inside a week.

"I'm not too enamoured about that," said Stapleton, "or about playing at Ipswich and Preston in back-to-back away games at the end of January and the start of February.

"That means we have got to go from East Anglia to the north-west in only a matter of days.

"But I suppose we have got to put up with that, and we are pleased our midweek trips this season are not as bad as last year."

Home midweek games include visits from Birmingham, Bristol City and Watford and Stapleton said: "[They] would probably have had more appeal on a weekend than a Tuesday night.

"But I'm quite pleased about playing Southampton at home on Boxing Day. It's an attractive fixture and, hopefully, Home Park will be full for that one.

"We have also got our regular Christmas visit to Cardiff on December 28, which we always look forward to."

We kick off the new season on August 9, when we entertain Wolves, before a visit to newly-relegated Reading.

The chairman said: "Wolves and Reading are two of the favourites for the title so it's an interesting start to say the least."