John Reed has branded Ossett Town’s scheduled trip to New Mills on Boxing Day as “ridiculous”.
Ossett have chosen to play their derby matches with Ossett Albion on August Bank Holiday weekend and on December 28th which left them at the mercy of the fixture schedulers for the Boxing Day game.
However, Reed expected a match against another locally-based club so got a shock when the Evo Stik Division One North fixtures were released last week and they were given a potentially treacherous journey to the Peak District at Christmas.
“I think it is ridiculous,” Reed told Non League Yorkshire.
“Why I they sending us to New Mills on Boxing Day when you have teams like Harrogate Railway and Brighouse nearby?
“You can’t tell me they couldn’t do that instead of sending us over the hills to New Mills.
“It is not an easy place to get to and I know that from being the manager of Buxton for five years so I think it is absolutely crazy.
“I’m dreading the trip already because you never know with the weather and I’ll be honest when I say I hope they get ten inch of snow and we don’t play.
“I was absolutely stunned when I saw the fixtures.”
Ossett got their pre-season campaign underway last night with the 3-1 win over Hemsworth Miners Welfare.
His three new signings – Tom Morgan, Luke Gordon and Nathan Quinlan – got a runout in the victory.
Goalkeeper Ciaran Gibson is also training with Frickley Athletic so the situation regarding him is unclear, but he did play in the second half at Hemsworth for Ossett.
Former Leeds City and Brighouse Town striker Barrie Frankland scored the third goal and Reed does want to sign him.
Reed added: “We didn’t need to bring too many in, but we’re still looking to possibly bring a couple more in before the 15th August.”