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winter break

1 (3.4%)

summer football

2 (6.9%)

build a roof

3 (10.3%)

go back to playing in any condition (when football was great)

16 (55.2%)

put a dart board up in the noel white suite

7 (24.1%)

Total Members Voted: 16

[Ashley Alty]

CONFERENCE NOT HELPING CLUBS WITH POSTPONEMENTS
By Matthew Gooding, from When Saturday Comes Limited

Fixture congestion is not an unusual problem at this time of year, but the
situation in the Conference Premier this season is particularly extreme. The
recent heavy rain, coupled with teams' commitments in the FA Cup and Trophy,
have left the table with an unbalanced look. Braintree, who have played one
League match in 2014, now have to fit 21 of their 46 fixtures into the next
nine weeks. Promotion-chasing pair Grimsby and Cambridge face the prospect
of playing every Saturday and Tuesday between now and the end of the season.

As it stands, Grimsby have seven games in hand on one of the teams directly
below them (Halifax) and six on a team above (Nuneaton). Yet the clubs
themselves vetoed a possible solution - 3G pitches - last month but the
feeling among many fans is that the League itself could do more to help its
members, either by playing more midweek games earlier in the year or
extending the season, which finishes on 26 April, two weeks before the
culmination of the Premier League.

In the face of criticism, the Conference board have come out fighting. The
League's PR and media director Colin Peake said: "We try to raise the
profile of the competition by having our play-off Final at Wembley, so we
can only have dates they offer us. You can't book a stadium a week before
you want it, and it's impossible to know which teams will make it to that
Final. If you're a manager of a club, do you want to start the season
playing two games a week right up until Christmas just in case the weather
after Christmas might be dodgy? If so, when do you rest your squad? Clubs at
our level do not have masses of players."

It is easy to understand the Conference's dilemma, especially as they have
no control over the Trophy, a Saturday competition with midweek Replays
which takes precedence over League fixtures. But the bad weather, which
Peake refers to as a mere possibility, hits at least one club every season,
and perhaps it is time for the Conference to consider whether the prestige
they think they get from hiring Wembley is worth cutting the season short
for.

It also seems doubtful that many clubs would complain about more midweek
games - and the chance to bank important income - earlier in the season,
when they know they're going to be hit in the pocket by January
postponements. With forecasters predicting more heavy rain in the coming
weeks, the weather looks set to play a part in determining the futures of
teams at both ends of the table.


WEATHER PROBLEMS HAVE HIT BRAINTREE TOWN TO THE TUNE OF GBP50,000
From www.greenun24.co.uk

The torrential downpours have hit Braintree Town in the pocket, to the tune
of around GBP50,000, according to chairman Lee Harding. Eighteenth-placed
Iron, with eight games in hand on some of their Skrill Premier League
rivals, and nine games in hand on ninth-placed FA Halifax, have not played a
home fixture in the division since December 28 - a time-line that was kept
going after Saturday's clash with Wrexham was called off.

However, despite Harding predicting some 'serious problems' ahead - should
the freak storms continue to play havoc - Town will maintain their quest for
the top-five, with the chairman confirming that any promotion would see Alan
Devonshire's side take their place in League Two next season. The stadium at
Cressing Road is now suitable for fourth-tier football but that doesn't mean
Iron have shelved plans to relocate in the next few years. Ironically, such
ambition could be seen as a factor behind the current problems they are
experiencing.

"We have spoken to the Football Foundation and Sports England and we qualify
for a 50% grant, which we would use to improve our drainage system at the
ground, with one exception," said Harding, whose team's game at Halifax was
called off on Tuesday. "The Football Foundation want to see their grant used
for improvements over the next ten years at the stadium and we are looking
to move within the next three to five."

Town have already lost weekend games at home against the likes of Cambridge
United and Lincoln City, both who usually bring sizeable away followings
with them, and Harding said it was natural that Iron were feeling the pinch.
"We've lost some big games, such as Cambridge where we were expected to have
a crowd of between 2500 and 3000 and others which would have probably
attracted around 800 spectators," he said. "The directors of the club,
collectively, have been very generous financially, but the basic maths say
that if things don't improve, certainly by April, we will have some serious
problems. The way we operate the club, we are debt free and we match our
income with our expenditure, so that does give us some room for manoeuvre
having not had a home game for six weeks, but it's probably cost us about
GBP50,000 which is a big hole."

Such a backlog could cost Town a place in the top-five play-off places this
season with the potential of three games a week likely to hit Alan
Devonshire's small squad of part-timers heavily as the season's climax draws
near. However, an extended break could also work the other way and should
Braintree reach the promised land this season, and Harding says it will be
all-systems go should the Iron then achieve promotion. "We are three or four
years away from a new stadium (at Springwood Drive) but we want to progress
and have applied for promotion," he added. "We meet the basic Football
League criteria for our ground. That shows the direction we want to go in.
"We fulfil Grade A criteria for Football League entry, with an attendance of
4000, including 500 seats, but after a year in the Football League, we would
then have to increase the attendance to 5,000, with 1000 seats. Three years
in the Football League would see us have to install another 1000 seats,
while not having to increase the attendance. We would have to look at how we
could afford that, while our main concern would be the on-going issue of
having just one road in and one road out of the ground."

For the time being, the priority remains getting games on, home and away.
Town's last game came on January 11, although it has not been for the want
of trying. "With help from Braintree Council we have spent a lot of time and
effort on our pitch in the last seven days," said Harding, who applauded the
work of volunteers who have worked to try and get the pitch playable, as
well as the Council's head of operations, Paul Partridge, who 'moved heaven
and earth' to try and get last Saturday's game with Nuneaton on. We have
double verti-drained the pitch (putting three-inch holes into the ground to
allow air to get into the pitch's sub-soil), we have installed a moat drain
around the pitch and we have had sand-banding drains going across it. But I
was told the other day that we have already had two inches of rain fall in
the UK this month, and seven inches fell throughout the whole of January.
The normal eco-system can't take anymore."

[taxi Phil]

Could one of our more statistically minded contributors do a summary for each of the last ten seasons showing , for each of the months between December and February, how many games we played and how many were postponed ? I'm betting there isn't actually a viable pattern to justify a break.

[York Alty]

Could one of our more statistically minded contributors do a summary for each of the last ten seasons showing , for each of the months between December and February, how many games we played and how many were postponed ? I'm betting there isn't actually a viable pattern to justify a break.

Even if there was there is no guarantee that any given two or three weeks would be the worst of a given winter.  We could end up with six weeks with no games, no income and players getting rusty.  A winter break is the last thing footy needs.

[Mrs Warbouys]

Statement expected by the conference tomorrow on the subject of 3G pitches, I wonder if we are about to see a change in the stance on them.

[taxi Phil]

Statement expected by the conference tomorrow on the subject of 3G pitches, I wonder if we are about to see a change in the stance on them.

Rearrange the following words to make a well known phrase or saying :

Breath hold don't your.....