A little bit of fixture overhang...

[becbee]

I always enjoy the New Year's Day match and it's a good one this season with Boring Wood making the journey to THL.

Please, Barnet. Don't postpone it unless we get a winnable tie in the FA Cup third round. Then I understand.

The Sutton and Halifax matches were postponed by mutual agreement because both clubs and us were in the FA Cup the following Saturday. Borehamwood are out so they'd have no reason to agree to the postponement.

[hoppy]

I always enjoy the New Year's Day match and it's a good one this season with Boring Wood making the journey to THL.

Please, Barnet. Don't postpone it unless we get a winnable tie in the FA Cup third round. Then I understand.

The Sutton and Halifax matches were postponed by mutual agreement because both clubs and us were in the FA Cup the following Saturday. Borehamwood are out so they'd have no reason to agree to the postponement.

Neighbourly love??

[hoofer2]

The problem with playing twice in a week is not so much the fitness. It's more about not having much training/preparation time to work on tactics, set yourself up, tweak your style for the opposition etc. FWIW- I think moving the Halifax game was a smart idea. But crucially, we need to guard against the risk of pileup later on, which means getting some of the games replayed soon after New Year just in case weather or cups give us even more rearrnaged games.

Didn't do Barry Fry teams any harm...if your team has momentum the more games the better

[MCB]

I always enjoy the New Year's Day match and it's a good one this season with Boring Wood making the journey to THL.

Please, Barnet. Don't postpone it unless we get a winnable tie in the FA Cup third round. Then I understand.

The Sutton and Halifax matches were postponed by mutual agreement because both clubs and us were in the FA Cup the following Saturday. Borehamwood are out so they'd have no reason to agree to the postponement.

Lack of interest?

[Edd1]

I always enjoy the New Year's Day match and it's a good one this season with Boring Wood making the journey to THL.

Please, Barnet. Don't postpone it unless we get a winnable tie in the FA Cup third round. Then I understand.

The Sutton and Halifax matches were postponed by mutual agreement because both clubs and us were in the FA Cup the following Saturday. Borehamwood are out so they'd have no reason to agree to the postponement.

I’d go further, if we have a plumb draw what better time to play us? Minds are elsewhere, no one wants to be injured or suspended for the big day. Perfect timing for anyone playing us.

[MCB]

So our home game against Harrogate on the 25th will now be re-arranged, meaning we'll play one league game in January - Braintree away on the 19th.

To be re-arranged:

Harrogate (H)
Aldershot Town (H)
Sutton United (A)
FC Halifax Town (A)

If we beat Dorchester Town as well, we'll have to additionally re-arrange:

Eastleigh (A) - currently 02 Feb

We currently have only 7 spare midweeks from now to the end of the season (from Feb - can't arrange next week as reserve date for FA Tropy replay - and I doubt we will agree to a game the Tuesday before our 4th round tie).

Getting awful close to the point we'll be playing Tue, Thu, Sat...

[jerroll]

surely a game needs to go in on 29th Jan - logically Sutton as they have the 3g pitch unless our FAcup game is on the Sunday or Monday!

[MCB]

surely a game needs to go in on 29th Jan - logically Sutton as they have the 3g pitch unless our FAcup game is on the Sunday or Monday!

Ah true. It's a completely free midweek so any team. Trouble is it will take - what - 1 week for the broadcasting teams to decide who plays when? I can't imagine our away tie at Accrington Stanley will be shown live

[jerroll]

surely a game needs to go in on 29th Jan - logically Sutton as they have the 3g pitch unless our FAcup game is on the Sunday or Monday!

Ah true. It's a completely free midweek so any team. Trouble is it will take - what - 1 week for the broadcasting teams to decide who plays when? I can't imagine our away tie at Accrington Stanley will be shown live

That would be on the following Tuesday after their cabbage patch was unplayable on the Saturday!

[pgbee]

surely a game needs to go in on 29th Jan - logically Sutton as they have the 3g pitch unless our FAcup game is on the Sunday or Monday!

And wasn't theirs the first to need rearrangement as well...? Due to their ahem Scottish League Cup match..

[becbee]

At this stage last season we only had one postponed match outstanding, that was due to Carlisle's involvement in the FA Cup 3rd round.
Apart from Port Vale being postponed in March and played 10 days later, we had no subsequent postponements.
This season we already have 5 postponements, that will become 6 if we beat Dorchester on Saturday, more if we progress further.

[jerroll]

At this stage last season we only had one postponed match outstanding, that was due to Carlisle's involvement in the FA Cup 3rd round.
Apart from Port Vale being postponed in March and played 10 days later, we had no subsequent postponements.
This season we already have 5 postponements, that will become 6 if we beat Dorchester on Saturday, more if we progress further.

This time last year we were out of all proper cups(other than Middx)! at least we haven't had any weather related call offs yet!

[becbee]

According to Southport's message board, their postponed fixtures have to be re-arranged within 42 days of their original date. Why does that rule apply to NLN ( and presumably NLS) fixtures but not NL ones?
I had the idea that we used to have to rearrange postponed fixtures to the first available date convenient for both clubs but that's clearly not happening with us this season or we'd have played some of our postponements by now.
Jerroll can you advise please?

[jerroll]

According to Southport's message board, their postponed fixtures have to be re-arranged within 42 days of their original date. Why does that rule apply to NLN ( and presumably NLS) fixtures but not NL ones?
I had the idea that we used to have to rearrange postponed fixtures to the first available date convenient for both clubs but that's clearly not happening with us this season or we'd have played some of our postponements by now.
Jerroll can you advise please?

Funny enough I thought that was the case too, not sure if there is dispensation due to the FA Cup!the main question re sutton is was it 42 days from original postponement or 42 days from 2nd call off which has also passed!

[barnetjohn]

Hmm- things could start to get congested.

So currently we now have five games which have been / will be cancelled:

Sutton (A)
Halifax (A)
Chesterfield (H)
Aldershot (H)
Harrogate (H)

If we beat Dorchester on Saturday, then you can also add Eastleigh (A) to the mix.

Chesterfield has been scheduled for 12th Feb.

I assume we cannot / will not want to re-arrange a game for a midweek allocated for possible replays for FA Cup / FA trophy.

So the rest of the midweeks look like this:

w/c 14th Jan: too soon / FA trophy replay week
w/c 21st Jan: won't want to play midweek before Brentford game
w/c 28th Jan: <FREE week 1>
w/c 4th Feb: Could be free, but would be FA trophy replay week if we beat Dorchester // Or FA cup replay week if we draw with Brentford
w/c 11th Feb: Chesterfield game
w/c 18th Feb: [would be three days after the fifth round if we reach it]
w/c 25th Feb: [fifth round replay] or FA Trophy Fourth round replay]
w/c 2nd March: <FREE week 2>
w/c 9th March: <Free week 3>
w/c 16th March: <Free week 4> , but comes in between trophy semis
w/c 23rd March: <Free week 5>
w/c 30th March: <Free week 6>
w/c 7th April: <Free week 7>
w/c 14th April: <Free week 8>, but game on Good Friday then again on Monday.
w/c 21st April: Easter Monday game
w/c 28th April: Season has finished by then!

By my calculations this gives us 8 free weeks. Or 6 if you chalk off the w/c 16th March in the grounds that no trophy semi finalist is going want to play then and w/c 14th which leads into Good Friday (opponents may not want to play games then even if we do). Obviously I could have got this wrong- and await Jerroll's guidance on the above dates!

If we beat Dorchester, that really doesn't give us much scope to re-arrange games. Even though we'd be looking at rearranging 5 more games, potential in 8 slots, other teams might already have dates in the diary. And TK may be reluctant to put anything in the diary w/c 28th Jan because it's just after a big cup tie, and he might still harbour hopes of an FA cup replay!

It does start to look like if we have a trophy run, or a weather induced postponement we could be in a spot of bother. If we get to the FA trophy semis we'd be really stuffed later on congestion wise I think.

***

Of course there is a valid question as to whether any of this talk of fixture congestion really matters, since we are a bit off the playoffs. If we haven't really got much of a chance of making them, then having a pileup of games at the end isn't such a dead loss. Some woudl argue the Trophy is our best shot at glory this season. But after the exciting performances under Currie, I guess many of us have raised expectations of maybe making the playoffs. And even if we do get to the playoffs, if we have played a tonne of matches in the final month, it'd be a tough ask to then negotiate two away playoff games versus fresher teams.

I do wonder if given the busy schedule recently, upcoming big cup game with Brentford, not to mention above congestion possibility whether DC is tempted to just field some kids on Saturday or another form of weakened team?

And one final question- what are the exact league rules about re-arranging? If we got in a real pickle because of a trophy run, could we just play the trophy game as is, shunt the clashing league game back 24 hours to the Sunday, and just play two games in a weekend but with two entirley different sides?