Blank Saturdays

[LB]

I always find Saturdays when we don’t have a game a bit strange - even if I can’t be at the game or listen to the commentary it’s nice to look forward to finding out the result and what happened. At least today we are without a game through no fault of our own, as it is usually because of an early cup exit!

It does seem a bit odd though that having crammed 11 games into the first 5 weeks of the season that there aren’t any on what could potentially be another good day for attendances. Perhaps rather than making City go to Hungerford on a Monday just 2 days after they had been all the way to Concord, it would have made more sense for that game to have been today - I know we won at Hungerford anyway and that it would still mean 2 games in 3 days (although having seen the weather forecast I doubt it!) but I think there would probably be more at Hungerford today than there were on that Monday evening.

Still, it isn’t only the National League that seems to have odd ideas about fixture scheduling. I see that Yeovil had to go all the way to Morecambe last night in League 2 - our ‘friends’ in green were 2-0 up at half time but lost 4-3 to a goal in the 92nd minute.

[comrade powell]

Agree with most of that, LB. For me Saturdays are by far the best time for matches. I'm not that keen on midweek evenings and bank holiday games are a real turn off. I'm not convinced there is a demand for so much football at our level and the glut of fixtures only really satisfies the diehards.

And before I'm reminded that gates are far higher on the Bank Holidays, that's not actually the case even for Boxing Days. Our last 7 home Xmas games have failed to reach 4 figures with an average of 800. Admittedly we have had some pretty uninspiring opponents - the 1,972 present at the '02 fixture with Chipp is easily the highest of the last 30+ years. And there seems to be little demand for the relatively recent New Years Day fixtures if our attendances are any yardstick. And then there are the August and Spring bank holiday fixtures which IMHO should be ditched - they are often forgettable with the players usually exhausted having played only 2 days earlier.

[Major Icewater]

Have to agree about the Spring Bank Holiday fixtures. So forgettable that I can not remember any of them!

[BenE]

Have to agree that there are too many games at this level. These players all have jobs and it requires tremendous dedication and self sacrifice to play. The football authorities should be making it easier for them.

The leagues should be reduced in size so that there is no need for any tuesday match unless a side has a decent cup run, ( or a replay).

[stillmanjunior]

I don't like the congested start, but it'll be here to stay whilst you have clubs that are notorious for having matches postponed. Havant's game today has fallen victim to the conditions, their second postponement this year, same as, unsurprisingly, Weston. Chelmsford get to go there on a Tuesday night now...

[2weirdtown]

Here in Dorset, Bridport haven't played at home since Dec 2nd.  Four postponed in a row now.  Good pitch but adjacent to the river and water keeps leeching through to the surface.

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