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http://www.afcdiamonds.com/afc-rushden- ... t-december

For selfish reasons I would like this match to be postponed, as I am unable to attend.

For less selfish reasons I think any game scheduled for a Tuesday in Dec/Jan is ridiculous considering the Christmas lead up and bad weather at this time of year. Gates suffer and teams have difficulty getting their strongest squad together eg Leighton, only one sub.
And in our case we have quite a few players injured or unavailable at present.

I understand that the fixtures secretary is probably worrying about games being cancelled in Jan due to snow etc but the season lasts until end of April, ample time to fit in games midweek during March and April.

Scheduling the Egham game for Dec 22nd is the height of stupidity ( I will already be off on my Christmas break by then)

sussexdiamond wrote:For selfish reasons I would like this match to be postponed, as I am unable to attend.

For less selfish reasons I think any game scheduled for a Tuesday in Dec/Jan is ridiculous considering the Christmas lead up and bad weather at this time of year. Gates suffer and teams have difficulty getting their strongest squad together eg Leighton, only one sub.
And in our case we have quite a few players injured or unavailable at present.

I understand that the fixtures secretary is probably worrying about games being cancelled in Jan due to snow etc but the season lasts until end of April, ample time to fit in games midweek during March and April.

Scheduling the Egham game for Dec 22nd is the height of stupidity ( I will already be off on my Christmas break by then)

We seemed to be very lucky with the weather last season, as in our first two campaigns we had six matches postponed each season between Christmas and March. If we also carried the three already rearranged games into March along with those six that wouldn't fit quite as well.

sussexdiamond wrote:For selfish reasons I would like this match to be postponed, as I am unable to attend.

For less selfish reasons I think any game scheduled for a Tuesday in Dec/Jan is ridiculous considering the Christmas lead up and bad weather at this time of year. Gates suffer and teams have difficulty getting their strongest squad together eg Leighton, only one sub.
And in our case we have quite a few players injured or unavailable at present.

I understand that the fixtures secretary is probably worrying about games being cancelled in Jan due to snow etc but the season lasts until end of April, ample time to fit in games midweek during March and April.

Scheduling the Egham game for Dec 22nd is the height of stupidity ( I will already be off on my Christmas break by then)

Totally disagree with you. There have been occasions in the past where clubs have had to play 5 games a week in the last couple of weeks of the season due to a combination of bad weather and good cup runs. The league season will not be extended past 23rd April except for games postponed or abandoned on that day. Better to play as many as possible now than risk that.

Players know what level of commitment is required for the league the team is in when they sign. If they can't/won't commit to that then don't take the money and go an play at a level more suitable to the commitment they can give.

Injuries can happen to any team at anytime. In this standard you aren't bound by a transfer window so I wouldn't use that as an excuse, isn't that why there are U21 and U18 sides.

So you would be quite happy watching a match in wet or freezing conditions with a couple of hundred fans when you could be watching on a pleasant spring evening with 500 fans.

We can come back to this subject in April, when the club announce a big loss in gate income.

With regard to Tuesdays match I would hope that St Ives would bring about 100 fans as they are the second best supported club and currently top of the league. So given a dry evening I predict a crowd of 501.

sussexdiamond wrote:So you would be quite happy watching a match in wet or freezing conditions with a couple of hundred fans when you could be watching on a pleasant spring evening with 500 fans.

We can come back to this subject in April, when the club announce a big loss in gate income.

With regard to Tuesdays match I would hope that St Ives would bring about 100 fans as they are the second best supported club and currently top of the league. So given a dry evening I predict a crowd of 501.

There's always a chance these fixture's will get called off anyway due to the weather but if they go ahead then it keep's thing's moving along. Like already said, if team's have a good cup run then Saturday league fixture's get re-arranged and played during March and April. It allows this option. I'm sure most would rather play midweek now than have to potentially play two midweeks.

What has the weather been like in the area today? I note the Doughboys game at the D&D on Saturday was called off.

Not sure how much rain we had overnight but it hasn't been as wet today as forecast. If it stays dry tomorrow with a moderate wind I think we have a chance of playing tomorrow. A lot of heavy rain is forecast for Thursday which might put Saturday's game in doubt too.

I suppose a lot depends upon whether or not Mark and Darren have been able to spend any time on the pitch this week - it was hammered after last weeks match. If they haven't then it could be in a bad state still, I presume it's been too wet to get a light roller on it, hence the doughboys not playing at the weekend.

I shall be charging around to make this match so hope it passes the pitch inspection and that my I'm not tearing about for nowt!