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.