The new season will be the Football League's 125th, with Burnley's game against Bolton on the opening day one of six given "anniversary match" status. The lunchtime kick-off, between two of the League's 12 founder clubs, will bring the TV cameras to Turf Moor, one of three original Football League grounds still in use.

In 1888, both sides were having an opening day to forget. On 9 September, The Observer picked up on two eye-catching inaugural results: "Five thousand people were present at Preston to see Burnley suffer defeat by five goals to two. At Bolton there were 3,000 spectators to see the Wanderers opposed to Derby County. Scoring was very rapid … County won the match by six goals to three."

Preston's first goal, by Fred Dewhurst, was the first deliberate goal in the new competition – coming soon after Aston Villa's Gershom Cox earned an uneasy place in history, slicing into his own net.

In the other anniversary games, two founder members, Derby and Blackburn, meet on Sunday, and League One Preston, the 1888-89 champions, play Wolves at another original ground, Deepdale.

The league's oldest club, Notts County, play away at the oldest professional ground, Sheffield United's Bramall Lane, on Friday, while founder members Accrington travel to the newest ground to face the newest member, Newport.

In League Two, Rochdale play Hartlepool for the 137th time - the most played fixture in Football League history.