Glasshoughton had to make the journey to Long Eaton last night
Garforth Town and Glasshoughton Welfare should have never been made to travel to Bridlington Town and Long Eaton United last night, writes James Grayson.
It is as simple as that. In an age when resources are small for the NCEL clubs, the fixtures could have been held over for a couple of months – there was no reason for them to play them on a cold November night.
Just 48 people watched Long Eaton and Glasshoughton so that probably didn’t cover the referee costs. Long Eaton is a long way for Glasshoughton, 68 mile to be precise. Then when you consider work, suspension and injuries, Rob Hunter was lucky to be able to field a side.
It’s not fair on anybody to be dragged to a far flung location in Nottingham on a cold midweek winter’s night. Throw in the fact that Glasshoughton can look forward to upcoming local Saturday matches with the likes of Tadcaster, Athersley, Nostell, Brighouse, Armthorpe and Liversedge, it begs the question why there wasn’t more tinkering done with the fixture schedule by the league?
It is absolute madness for Glasshoughton to travel to Long Eaton on a Wednesday when they have played Garforth and a few other local teams on a Saturday afternoon.
Glasshoughton have a free weekend on March 29th on the same day Long Eaton play Lincoln Moorlands Railway. Why wasn’t that game brought forward to Wednesday night so that Glasshoughton would travel to Long Eaton on a Saturday?
Hunter had to beg, borrow and steal to even get a side out, but the arduous journey down the M1 had already taken its toll by half-time and it resulted in a 7-0 defeat. Garforth head coach Graham Nicholas had a similar problem and he had to make eight changes to his side with three players making their debuts – including goalkeeper Matthew Woodhall who kept his team in the game in the opening 20 minutes.
Garforth kept the score down to a respectable 3-0, but the two matches along with Liversedge’s 8-2 defeat at Staveley highlight the unnecessary midweek pressures that NCEL are being put under.
Keep the scheduled midweek games local as much as possible – that’s got to be the message.