So, the calls for a winter break have even got stronger this year thanks to the freezing cold weather, snow and subsequent waterlogging that we have had over the past month. In some respects it is understandable, particularly at non-league level where numerous teams haven't played a game since the 12th of December. Look at our fellow Cumbrians Kendal Town, 16 league games played in the first five months of the season, 22 left to play in the final three months. That's not the worst predicament in the Unibond Football League though as FC Halifax Town, Radcliffe Borough and Salford City all have 25 matches to fit in before the end of April as I type. The other thing that often creates a fixture backlog in the non-league game is cup runs and both Truro City and Nuneaton Town fall foul of that as they hit the 26 game buffers. Although Bacup Borough in the Vodkat League are the winners in the divisions I have looked at with 27 league fixtures remaining after playing only 15. And what about us? Well first team level has been bad enough, but as for the youth team lads, they have been another side out of action since the 12th of December as well. That game was as close as it could have been to being off too, and up to this Saturday that will be the only league game they will have played in a ridiculous two months - almost a quarter of the season. Two weeks of that were their traditional Christmas break, but you know what the weather was like then, no games would have been played anyway. It could be worse though, we were knocked out of the league cup in the first round by table-toppers Preston in early October, North End then booked to face Accrington Stanley at the next stage of the competition on the 7th of November. Well that game has now been postponed four times and was scheduled to be played again yesterday just two and a half months late. Preston, apart from that, still having 13 league matches to fit in as well as finding themselves involved in the FA Youth Cup and Lancashire FA Youth Cup. It was a long run in that competition at the end of last season that more than likely cost Burnley the youth title, the younger of the Clarets playing 18 youth and reserve games in their last 37 days of the campaign. Part of the reason for that though is their insistence on playing their second-string games at Accrington Stanley, the Crown Ground often not fit for Accrington's own first team matches never mind the reserve fixtures of Burnley. So with big backlogs of games again this season for all clubs at youth and reserve level due to the horrendous weather over the last month where do we go from here? Well personally I don't see why, when sides inevitably have more matches called off for frozen pitches or waterlogging that games can't be played on "astroturf" pitches if both clubs agree. Surely better to get matches on and out of the way than have 16 and 17-year olds playing three or four times a week? Infact over the Irish Sea, Crusaders are already looking to see if they can help out other clubs as they have made their Seaview Ground, with its artificial 4G pitch, available to Premiership, reserve or intermediate teams at reduced rates to help clear some games. Crues chairman Stephen Bell commenting to BBC Sport : "We may well be able to fit in Friday evening, Saturday evening or Sunday fixtures. We would like to play our part in these exceptional circumstances." Even their 4G surface couldn't get a game on two weeks ago though at the height of the deep freeze, the terraces having been cleared of snow in the build-up to the game, only for it to snow again on the morning of the match. That meaning that the game was called off for Health and Safety reasons, and I'm not even going to start whinging about matches being called off because of that or I'll be here all day, and I'm sure you'll agree that 800 words is already long enough. It's the "exceptional circumstances" mentioned by Stephen Bell that mean I'm still not in favour of a winter break, although I really do think that playing youth and reserve games on artificial surfaces when required is something that should be looked at strongly. Especially the way the game is going in the lower leagues, with money concerns meaning that squads are getting thinner and thinner as clubs rely more and more on their own youth products, we can't afford to run the future players of the game into the (frozen) dust. |