Harsh treatment of Needham Market

[sussexdiamond]

Needham Market have been forced to withdraw from the FA Trophy. Their game at Weymouth was postponed after they had arrived on Saturday and the re match was scheduled for tomorrow. Needhams request/appeal to delay the game was ignored by the FA and it does not sound as though Weymouth were very helpful either. To play the game Needham players would need to take all Tuesday off work and probably quite a bit on Wednesday. As both clubs are in the Southern League it would not have been impossible for the League to agree for both clubs to play the game on 22nd Dec or Jan 8th (the next round is 12th Jan). Ironicly there is a very strong probability that the pitch at Weymouth would not be fit to play tomorrow as weather on the south coast has been atrocious for past couple of days. As a closet Weymouth fan I find their attitude very disappointing.

Weymouth will now play Workington or Ramsbottom away in the next round. Could be interesting to see Weymouths reaction if that match were to be postponed!

[therushden]

nothing surprises me with the fa. i bet it's in the rules that they have to play asap if the game is called off. don't make it fair though.

[BartonRaz]

The club knew the rules when they entered the competition and there's always the chance that something like this would occur. Having said that, some common sense should be applied and the game rescheduled for a Saturday. The fact a team has had to withdraw from one of the main rounds of a senior national competition should cause some embarrassment for the FA but I'm not sure it'll really register with them.

Didn't think much to Weymouth's statement. Easy enough to criticise when it's not you that has to travel all that way, have a game postponed an hour before kick-off, travel all that way back and then have to do the same again a few days later.

[Brownie]

Could be a little bit of instant karma coming the way of Weymouth FC, subject to the replay the best they can hope for is Ramsbottom away but wouldn't it be amusing if they had Workington away, just the 383 miles and 6 hours 40 mins + travelling. Called off 90 minutes before kick off and played on the Tuesday night.

[Dazzler]

Brings back memories... Jan 19th 2010 (on checking) - Tuesday night, lost 2-1. Still, not as far as for Weymouth but bad enough when there were loads of roadworks on the way back.

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My comment on this last photo at the time - "Workington v RDFC - More pressure from RDFC, getting closer. Good shots from Tommo/Faz, Byrne hits post again.....everything but score..."

I think this was when I took photos on most matches to send to Irish Diamond, and included a comment, and he "live" blogged for the fans who couldn't make the games.

[TheIncognitoKid]

Crazy to think that was only 8 years ago. Look how far we've come in such a short space of time!

[sussexdiamond]

A Nick Evangelinos inspired Ramsbottom won at Weymouth last night, so maybe some sort of justice prevailed. Not much consolation to Needham though.