Bridlington Town manager Brett Agnew has admitted that he is not an advocate of Boxing Day fixtures for lower Non League clubs.
However, he stopped short of criticising the Toolstation Northern Counties East League for their controversial u-turn which led to the re-scheduling of matches on Boxing Day.
Eight festive fixtures across both Divisions have since moved to other dates, but Bridlington’s trip to Goole AFC is one of 12 games currently scheduled to take place.
“Some people don’t want to play and want to wait until after Christmas and some are happy to,” Agnew told Non League Yorkshire.
“I’m a bit on the fence. If we play, fine and we’ll get the lads up for it. If we don’t play then I don’t mind. It has been a rubbish year and maybe it is a good idea to give the lads the Christmas period off.
“I’ve never really been a big fan of the Boxing Day games anyway. I don’t think there should be Boxing Day games lower than Conference North/South level.
“As a manager and chairman you don’t know what you’re going to get out of your players because they could have been out to x, y and z times.
“Especially this year, I don’t think they should do the Boxing Day games. It has been a horrible year and people want to try and enjoy themselves as best as they can.
“But if they tell us we’re playing, we’re playing and I can see where the league are coming from. It is very difficult for them and they are between a rock and a hard place because they dammed if they do and they are dammed if they don’t.
“The league are trying to do right, but I just think when you look at it in-depth and see from both ways; you’ve already told people you’re playing in January and people are getting ready for January. Then you’re telling them they’re playing on Boxing Day.
“I don’t think it is a terrible decision what they’ve done, I just think some common sense comes into where you think ‘yeah we might just push it back and leave it until January’. I do feel sorry for the people at the league sometimes because they’re trying to do their best.
“I’m not moaning, I’m on the fence and I’ll get on with it and we have to get ready for Handsworth on Saturday.”
The battle with Russ Eagle’s Handsworth is their first Premier Division fixture since the end of October 8-1 demolition of Athersley Rec.
That was sixth-placed Brid’s third straight league victory and Agnew says the lockdown stalled momentum.
“We are in a strong position,” he said.
“We had a bit of blip but then we came back strong. But it is the same as last season when Covid hit, the lockdown (in November) came just as we were hitting a bit of form. That’s the luck we’re getting.
“We’ve got to try and hit the ground running again. On Saturday (in a friendly) most of the lads played 90 minutes and most of them looked fine.”
Given the visit of Handsworth is their first competitive game since October, Agnew admits he does not know what to expect.
“The last game was a straight-forward win for us and it should have been a lot more,” he said.
“This time is going to be a lot different. They’re going to be bang up for it and I can see it being one of those crazy scores like 6-5 or 5-4 because everyone will be rusty.
“We’ve only really had one training session to get up to speed. We had a friendly last Saturday behind closed doors and we only had the training session last night to get ourselves ready.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
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