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[george]

Conference fixtues are compiled by hand. Couldn't there be a system based on mileage between hcompetiting clubs where x miles stipulates mid-week watches between clubs & y miles stipulates Saturdays.However, replays do come into the equation. Therefore, leave it to someone to think about it. However,would a computer do any better?

[ManagementGuru]

In the early years of the Alliance Premier League, they made a big fuss about how they had drawn up the fixtures as follows:

- Home and Away to far away clubs on Saturdays early or late in the season - unlikely to be disrupted by weather or cup ties
- Home and Away to relatively local sides in midweek at beginning or end of season
- Over Christmas and weeks where later rounds of FA Cup or Trophy might impinge, medium distance trips or local ones

So our first Saturday APL fixtures were (a) Weymouth, (h) Maidstone (a) Worcester (h) Nuneaton
And midweek (h) Telford (a) Bangor (a) Telford

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Why the constant carping about the distance travelled on a weeknight both on club website and on Radio Robins? It's a national division. The fixtures can't be arranged so the part-time teams only travel on a Saturday.

Whilst it's something we have to put up and deal with in the national division, think it's always going to get a mention due to the fact it's a bit of an unwanted novelty.  In a couple of season I think the carping will reduce.  Still very unfair that we have 6 away on a Tuesday and 2 at home, part time or not.


They must be concerned at just over 1,000 home fans though even accounting for Tuesday crowds being lower.  The team they have put together deserve more than that.

Whilst it's certainly unfair on supporters that we have six away fixtures and only two home matches scheduled for Tuesday evenings, the club itself actually benefits from this arrangement/having a greater number of Saturday home fixtures to some extent since, as Ecky mentions above, experience shows that our Tuesday evening attendances would be lower.

I have also heard it said that sponsorship of Saturday games is 'easier' to organise than it is for midweek evening fixtures.

As for the locations that the Vanarama Conference fixture compiler doles out to us on Tuesday evenings, well, surely this aspect could be organised on a more logical basis.



 




  

[roytonmike]

Re midweek fixtures - the geography of the Conference has moved inexorably south, ever since the Isthmian (now Ryman) League joined the NPL & Southern as feeders in the early 1980s, and this trend has been accentuated more recently. It should, however, be possible to limit midweek opponents to those clubs less than 100 miles away; this would leave the following ten clubs in our case - Macc; Chester; Southport; Halifax; Wrexham; Alfreton; Telford; Kidderminster; Lincoln; Nuneaton. Christmas/New Year & August Bank Holiday/Easter Monday opponents could also come from this list as it gives a total of 20 possibilities overall (10 home, 10 away). (By the way, that list took about 3 minutes to work out thanks to the mileages listed on the main website. Even a Bananarama Conference Fixture Compiler should have the wit to do that for each club & come up with a list that doesn't send Torquay to Macc, Aldershot to Southport, Woking to Grimsby & Chester to Dartford on the same Tuesday!) Sorry - it's one of my hobby-horses! Moan over. 

[Jimmy]

Good post mike I used To go away midweek and the matches were fairly local unless it was rearranged I think this should be the case at all levels and it can be

[Leon]

Good post mike I used To go away midweek and the matches were fairly local unless it was rearranged I think this should be the case at all levels and it can be

This is the important point that's not been made on this thread before - local midweek games make it possible for many more away fans (of part-time or full-time clubs) to attend, whereas yesterday's was impossible to get to for most Alty fans.

[Hale Alty]

For full-time teams it makes no difference if the game is Saturday or midweek - you've still got to make the journey. What people are asking for here is preferential treatment for the part-time teams. As for fans travelling, i'm more likely to go to Telford on a Saturday than midweek (as happened last season/this season), and I probably wouldn't go to Dover, Woking, Aldershot etc whatever day it was played.

[roytonmike]

For full-time teams it makes no difference if the game is Saturday or midweek - you've still got to make the journey. What people are asking for here is preferential treatment for the part-time teams. As for fans travelling, I'm more likely to go to Telford on a Saturday than midweek (as happened last season/this season), and I probably wouldn't go to Dover, Woking, Aldershot etc. whatever day it was played.

For all teams it makes a difference how far you have to travel. My point is not limited to part-time clubs - hence the reference to Torquay travelling to Macc, for example, a week ago Tuesday. Fans of any club who want to attend distant away games should also be taken into consideration by the planners. It isn't the first time we've had ridiculous scheduled midweek games in the Conference - my mind goes back to a Tuesday night in Salisbury a few years ago & to Wimbledon trekking up here for a night game one November; and with the greater number of Southern clubs (only Gateshead, Southport, Halifax & Grimsby are further north than us) some midweek trips won't be exactly local, but it is possible to allocate games more logically than at present. I repeat that for me at least this is not a part-time v full-time question.

[Hamilton]

In the early years of the Alliance Premier League, they made a big fuss about how they had drawn up the fixtures as follows:

- Home and Away to far away clubs on Saturdays early or late in the season - unlikely to be disrupted by weather or cup ties
- Home and Away to relatively local sides in midweek at beginning or end of season
- Over Christmas and weeks where later rounds of FA Cup or Trophy might impinge, medium distance trips or local ones

So our first Saturday APL fixtures were (a) Weymouth, (h) Maidstone (a) Worcester (h) Nuneaton
And midweek (h) Telford (a) Bangor (a) Telford

If they could do that then, why can't they do that now?