Do not understand why more games are not played during the first 3 months of the season and why the FA Trophy still exists as looking at who is left it seems a pointless competition with the Conference Premier having a 46 game schedule. You will never win both and promotion to the Football League is what the big teams want and the smaller teams such as ourselves cannot afford a fixture pile up with our small squad, thus why Jamie played the reserves at Braintree which was 100% the correct decision. With the bad weather likely to continue the League has become a farce and any team out of many has a chance to make the play offs. The Conference should start earlier and have over 30 games played by the turn of the year.
How is that a strange notion? Is it right that a team still has over 20 league games to play in the middle of February?
The fixture pile up makes the league a farce as all the big teams can stock up on players and leave smaller sides such as ourselves at a disadvantage.
What is your suggestion, if mine is so strange according to you, stick with the status quo and have teams with 12 games in 4 weeks in April?
Do not understand why more games are not played during the first 3 months of the season and why the FA Trophy still exists as looking at who is left it seems a pointless competition with the Conference Premier having a 46 game schedule. You will never win both and promotion to the Football League is what the big teams want and the smaller teams such as ourselves cannot afford a fixture pile up with our small squad, thus why Jamie played the reserves at Braintree which was 100% the correct decision. With the bad weather likely to continue the League has become a farce and any team out of many has a chance to make the play offs. The Conference should start earlier and have over 30 games played by the turn of the year.
I can't understand why you make this statement. Only two seasons ago York City won the Trophy and were promoted in the same season and there is every possibility that the winners of this year's semi-final between Cambridge United and Grimsby could do the same. I cannot understand why people want to have a dig at the Trophy. Surely it is every non-league footballer's dream to play in a final at Wembley. The vast majority never get that chance and without the Trophy none of them would. Jamie Day probably was right in his decision for the Braintree match as we had two very important games programmed for the following seven days. Such decisions should be the exception rather than the rule though as there are considerable financial rewards to be had by reaching the later stages of the competition.
I agree with you that there should be more league matches in the first half of the season but it is not the Trophy that is pointless but the County Cups whose matches are watched by far fewer people than Trophy games. I think the idea of 30 league games being played by the turn of the year is over the top and I doubt that managers would want that sort of pressure on their players. However if league fixtures began a week or two earlier and County Cup weeks became league weeks this would allow about four extra games to be played early season and ease fixture congestion late in the season if there is prolonged bad weather. As has been said though the clubs which suffer most from fixture congestion are those that do not take adequate steps to keep their pitches in playable condition so there is some justice there.
However if league fixtures began a week or two earlier and County Cup weeks became league weeks this would allow about four extra games to be played early season and ease fixture congestion late in the season if there is prolonged bad weather.
I wouldn't want to see the league season starting in July. There needs to be more than two months between the end of the season and start of the next one.
County cup games could be played on Thursdays so you could have league games during the same week.
Points taken on board, maybe the season should start a week earlier and have a few more games early on. Surely this would help Welling as we would know that we will actually play most of the games and maybe have a larger squad in the 1st half of the season, i.e. one or two youngsters on 4 month loans. Now we face over one third of the season with only 2 centre halves, another missed game on Saturday and no sign when this terrible weather will end. Hopefully if we avoid injuries and suspensions we have enough quality to grab a few points her and there. Still think the FA Trophy is not that relevant any more and should be switched to midweek on a regional basis until the quarter finals. Are we allowed any more loans or is that it now? Maybe Jamie can find a free agent who needs a few games to get themselves fit and put themselves in the shop window at this level. Think that this League needs a rethink as playing teams twice in the second half of the season makes no sense and teams like Luton make strategic loans that affect clubs like ours. Here's to some dry sunny weather!!!
One easy way in my opinion, but it will never happen - reduce the League to 22 clubs along with all Leagues down to Step 4.
Ryman, Southern and Northern Leagues having 24 clubs is totally ridiculous and places huge pressure on clubs. This would then strengthen step 5 and promotion places from there could be increased.
46 games in 40 ish weeks when you add in the FA Cup, FA Trophy and League Cups is not feasible but it's far too sensible to ever happen
