Shaw Lane Aquaforce withdrew from the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup final earlier today
The late withdrawal of Shaw Lane Aquaforce from the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a very sorry episode for everyone involved.
Frickley Athletic are the innocent party and real losers of the story. As to who is to blame, everyone has a different view.
There are numerous recent examples in recent years of clubs having to play County Cup finals 24 hours before play-offs semi-finals so the problem is not a new one. It is just that Aquaforce have had the nerves of steel to follow through with their threat.
Fellow play-offs semi-finalists Basford United have tweeted their support of Aquaforce as the Nottinghamshire FA moved their County Cup final to accommodate Basford’s two important fixtures. Why didn’t the Sheffield & Hallamshire FA do that? It is a question they haven’t answered.
Alan Allcock, the Northern Premier League’s operations manager, tweeted this morning, of all the times, to say he felt the play-offs should be held back a week to accommodate County Cup finals. A sensible idea, but that is for another day though. A current big question for the local FAs and the NPL is do they communicate with each other so there are no clashes?
Hardly a moment to breath before the #EvoStikNPL Promo Play Offs. Surely our calendar can cope with a weeks break to let the teams prepare.
— Alan Allcock (@alannpl) April 25, 2016
Aquaforce’s play-offs semi-final should have been actually played tomorrow, the same night as the Senior Cup final. But when Aquaforce contacted the league to inform them of the problem, the NPL said it would have to be played on Wednesday instead. That decision sounded the starting pistol on a debacle that will be remembered for years.
Surely the NPL had the opportunity to be innovative in this situation. As Craig Wood pointed out, player welfare has be considered because it is unfair on semi-professional players to play two major fixtures in the space of two days. Moving the Aquaforce-Lincoln play-offs clash to Thursday would have been a good start. Then to be fair to the other finalist, the NPL would have had the opportunity to move the Division One One South play-offs final to Bank Holiday Monday.
The NPL hide behind having to get the fixtures completed by a certain date, but does two extra days really matter on a Bank Holiday weekend?
Shaw Lane are likely to have the book thrown at them by the Sheffield & Hallamshire FA. Some will have sympathy, many others like Frickley won’t. But the authorities should not think they will come out of it scot-free. They need to make sure there is never again a circumstance where a club has to play a County Cup final and a play-offs semi-final on two consecutive nights.
Nerves of steel or lack of bottle?
Common sense action at a price , due to lack of common sense .
Nerves of steel or lack of bottle?
SLA already played the SSCC semi-final and a league game with Goole on consecutive days, so to say they couldn’t/wouldn’t play 2 important games in 48 hours is a red herring. I have sympathy with their situation, but not their decision and how they’ve made it.
Ordered by evostik to play Goole day after postponed game and asked sheff fa to move semi to new date , no was answer by both evostik and sheff fa , that’s why played , suffered in long run tho .
A shocking decision by SLA , the size of there squad makes matter worst..Yeah they’ve bottled it .
Play the game. Even if you give the game in effect, you still play it and give players an opportunity. Frankly its stupid and not a little short sighted. Idiots!
I seem to think that they also pulled out of the Sheffield cup not too long back . They were awarded a rematch but refused to play it .
SLA have signed enough players this season to field 3 teams never mind 1, and have no excuse for not fielding a side in a final. Even so, Sheff & Hallam fa and the Evo Stick league should surely have forseen the situation arising, communicated with all parties involved and sought an alternative date/venue etc for the game to go ahead.
All involved have now lost out