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[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Reproduced below in all its splendour:


Dear Sirs,

At the time of writing there are three unresolved 1st Round Trophy ties due to be played next Monday/Tuesday.

Should the weather intervene again the FA have stated that these games will have to be re-arranged for Wednesday/Thursday.

In the 'worst case' scenario, a club could travel on Monday or Tuesday, the game be postponed an hour or so from kick-off, have to arrange a further game for Wednesday or Thursday and then undertake a journey to the other end of the country, probably requiring an overnight stay, for a Saturday afternoon game.

To require this of part-time clubs and players is frankly ludicrous.

Had someone at the FA shown a little foresight things might have been made a little easier.

As soon as the decision was taken to make the Trophy Final a post-season (i.e. May) game the whole schedule should have been moved back to how it used to be, with Round 1 on January 16th and subsequent rounds at three-week intervals.

This would have placed the semi-finals in April, a clear two weeks before the end of the League season (or three weeks if the semis were made one-off games rather than two-legged).

The combination of Christmas & New Year fixtures, which of course must not be moved for sound economic reasons, the weather problems which are becoming more and more common at this time of year and a national rather than regionalised draw for the round of the last 32 made for a potent mixture, labelled 'crisis waiting to happen'.

To revert to the former schedule would have taken out the first of these issues at least.

I hope someone at the FA will have a serious look at this - otherwise a competition which has suffered severely from the impact of play-offs in League competitions and the perceived lack of interest in it on the part of a sizeable proportion of National League clubs may go even further down people's priority lists.

Yours faithfully,

Mike Garnett.

 

[RedhillAlty]

I wonder if they edited it?
I once wrote a piece complimenting Graham Heathcote and the NLP ripped it to pieces before printing it.

[roytonmike]

Compare the version on the Club website with that in the paper & you'll have your answer.