Re: re: Short notice games

By Hendonboy (legacy user)25/2/2015 14:00Wed Feb 25 14:00:06 2015In response to Re: re: Short notice games

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I don't think it shows much disregard for supporters in this situation to be honest. It's no doubt frustrating for those who'd like to go to these games - who given the numbers that turn up at the smaller cup games are obviously our regulars - but frankly we'd be doing everyone concerned a disservice if we didn't make as much effort as possible in these circumstances to get games played.

- As Mike Cox says, the players are desperate for competitive minutes. We've been lucky to get friendlies at SJP on Saturdays, but they only go so far in terms of keeping the players match fit.
- We're running out of blank midweeks we can use for games in the future and by all accounts the Earlsmead pitch is a mess. By getting games out of the way we're reducing the risk of having to play Sat/Tues/Thurs or worse in April and gives us a fighting chance of continuing to perform at the top end of the table rather than falling off because of fixture overload - few people are going to want to turn up to 3 or more games a week to watch a knackered side fall down the league either.
- This decision will only have been made in light of Monday's postponement and continued review of the state of Earlsmead - had we played on Monday night I doubt very much we'd have looked into replacing Thursday night training with a game. It only makes sense in the context of no game on Monday, a bad home pitch and a potentially looming backlog.

Finally as regards the postponements - our hands are more or less tied. Leaving aside the condition of the pitch, all we're able to do is get it inspected; only a qualified referee can make a decision about whether it's fit or not. We could arguably give ourselves a better chance by not bothering with early inspections and risking a late call off, but it hardly shows much regard to anyone concerned to let everyone travel and have it called off just before kick-off when we could save everyone the trouble. It's a no-win situation that will hopefully be sorted if and when we're able to move to SJP but in the meantime we're going to have to try and make the best of things.

I don't think anyone involved with the club are under any illusions that it's a good situation for fans (it's hardly ideal for anyone at the club either; home or away, people are having to change their plans to make sure the necessary jobs are covered), but I think we'd be doing fans a bigger disservice by not giving the squad the best chance they have of completing the season in good shape.

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