Shaw Lane Aquaforce chairman Craig Wood is furious over his club having to play the Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup final 24 hours before the play-offs semi-final.
Aquaforce face Frickley Athletic at Bramall Lane on Tuesday night and then Lincoln United in the Evo Stik Division One South play-offs on Wednesday.
No-one is willing to “budge” over the issue and Mr Wood believes his club are “victims of their own success”. Mr Wood is also concerned over the welfare of his players.
“Whilst I am disappointed we have not won the league, I am more disappointed with the Sheffield FA for making us play a cup final 24 hours before the biggest game in the club’s history,” Wood told Non League Yorkshire.
“I think the Sheffield FA should look at what may occur in terms of Evo Stik League teams (when choosing a date for the final).
“I am fearful that it may be too much for us having to play two games in two days. I think it is crazy.
“I don’t know where else it happens where you are a victim of your own success. I’m not blaming the Evo Stik, I guess the Evo Stik League’s fixtures have always been set in stone because the play-offs always proceed the end of the season.”
Mr Wood also confirmed that his club will be known as either Shaw Lane AFC and Shaw Lane FC next season, not Barnsley Town FC as originally planned.
The FA has told Shaw Lane that they have missed the deadline for changing their name for next season because it was December 31st 2015. This adds to the continuing farce which was started by the Northern Premier League, who only realised that the ‘Aquaforce’ part of the name was against their rules at the end of last year.
Mr Wood, who is determined to press ahead with plans to call the club Barnsley Town FC in time for the 2017-18 season, has also received a legal letter from League One neighbours Barnsley who are not happy over the proposed name change.
“There has been so much drama on-the-field, but so much drama off-the-field,” he added.
“People don’t realise what we have gone through. Even the idea of changing the name to Barnsley Town FC has not gone down well with Barnsley Football Club and there are some legal issues being presented to us which are ultimately going to drag on.”
Listen to the full interview with Craig Wood at the top of the page.
As ever Aquaforce are as Craig says “victims of their own success”. I can see the issue with the name Barnsley Town being contentious but the cup fixture could be changed to a different date to accommodate the players and make it a fair match. Let’s not forget here that the players are not paid millions of poundsbut they also have full time jobs. It is way too much to expect the players to do two consecutive matches. It seems that Aquaforce are being treated unfairly in all this and the Sheffield FA need to appreciate the difficulty being caused.
Sick of hearing about shaw lanes troubles. People should be under no illusions that they are paying their large squad top money to be successful. Deal with it
How many players do you have registered? Quite a few i would have thought, get on with it, everyone else has to. Don’t enter the competition if the league is your priority.
Don’t they realise the final is played at a pro clubs ground and it has been organised at the beginning of the season and can’t be changed they have enough players signed on to be able to play 4 days a week
I now hear aquaforce are threatening to withdraw from sheff cup unless sheffield and hallamshire move the fixture! Who do they think they are? If sheff and hallamshire give in to threats they are opening themselves up for some trouble in the future!
One of the oldest cup competitions being de valued by a newly formed fly by night team. Put their semi final opponents back in. At least handsworth are a proper club with a fantastic infra structure with numerous youth teams and are willing to provide their youngsters and reserves with the opportunity of 1st team football. Its this set up that enables them to deal with their congested fixture list and im sure they would get a side out to do this prestigious cup justice