Bank Holiday fixtures 2007/8

[abacus]

The club agreed to play Telford last season so are there any preferences this time.Ilkeston have requested Eastwood I believe.When are league and F.A fixtures due to be published?

[abacus]

It would appear that Ilkeston have now published their actual August, Boxing Day and two Easter fixtures v Eastwood and Matlock.What arrangements are planned for the Pitmen?

[Dobba]

Can we apply for Whitby on the August bank holiday please? :D

[abacus]

At Keys Park??

[rodh]

No I have not made any request for the Bank Holiday fixtures. Will not matter who we play as we now have no one on our doorstep. I pressume that if Leek Town survive their current financial crisis we could be paired with them over the Xmas and New year

The last place I would want to travel on a August Bank Holiday would be a seaside location.Even Matlock would be a problem with the day trippers.No beach at ashton !!

[abacus]

Buxton are a possibility as presumably the club would like to have as local a game as possible especially over Boxing Day/ New Year fixtures

[MikeM]

Another one of the downsides of us playing in the Northern section - there aren't any teams with whom we have along-standing familiarity, let alone rivalry. If we were in southern we could have Bromsgrove or Halesowen at this level..

[Glyn]

... and you and Iain would find away games a lot easier to get to!

But it ain't gonna happen.... and I would imagine we'd rather be in Conf North 08-09 than Conf South? (or whatever they're called this week)

[abacus]

Good news that Leek survive and they may also be Bank Holiday games now

[SteveW]

Kings Lynn are not too happy:


This afternoon at 3:45 club chairman Ken Bobbins received a telephone call from the FA in London.
Ken was informed that it is a very strong possibility that by Tuesday of next week Scarborough FC may well go out of business.
It is therefore the FA's intention to move King's Lynn to the Unibond League to balance the numbers.
The club wishes to make clear to its supporters that it will be doing all it can to oppose this move and stay in the Southern League as already much work has been done in building next season's squad with southern based players.
However the final decision will be made by the FA and King's Lynn FC may well have little say as to what league we will start the 2007/08 season in.
We will keep all supporters updated on this most important matter.

[abacus]

Premiership Championship and League fixtures published Thursday.Word is ours out early July ?F.A.Comps end of July?Recall once that fixtures started with a Senior Cup game

[abacus]

Ilkeston have paired with Eastwood and Matlock and now we read Leek have with Witton for two of their Bank Holiday fixtures.It appears Buxton and Matlock have also done the same.I hope Boxing Day/New Year fixtures do not involve too much travel and one of those teams are available if this is true

[Bob C]

Sounds about right to send us somewhere like Gateshead. what a crap set up the league is:mad:

[abacus]

Very strong comments!The point I was making is that given the location of some teams and that it is possible to jointly apply to agree two Bank Holiday fixtures then although the Telford games made sense last season then so would two games with relatively local sides over Christmas.How is this league different to your experiences when you were involved

[rodh]

I must refute Bob C's comment with regard to the Unibond League as in my experience the League is well run and the officers are very experienced football people.
Having been members of the Southern League, Football Conference and the Unibond over the last three seasons I can honestly state that they are the most efficient.
We are still new to the League and the other clubs have long standing relationships so it it not difficult to see that they are going to continue playing their local derby fixtures over xmas and the new year.

I recently informed the League that we would like to play either Leek, Witton or Matlock over the holiday period but with these clubs looking to have made alternate arrangements it looks as if we have see what fate has lined up for us.

I am sure we will not get Gateshead but then again the roads would be empty!!!.

[Bob C]

You would say that wouldn't you Rod. you dare not say anything else or you would be before the Unibond exec, being a "Club Official" for speaking what others only dare to say.

But my main point is that because we are out on a limb, other clubs only want holiday fixtures that are close to them. who is close to us? the other clubs already seem to have set up their "local" games. awaiting confirmation of course. we are on to a hiding to nothing.:)

[abacus]

Don't suppose nicking players from Eastwood and Leek and possibly Ilkeston would enhance our chances of reaching agreement with those teams!!There's always Worksop or Witton as other options for those days.

[Keith H]

Don't think it matters who we have Bank Holidays to be honest,and I think whoever it was over Xmas we would be struggling to get 25% of the Telford attendance anyway as there is no real local interest involved.

As regards a lot of people calling the NPL a tin pot league and officials I'm not sure where everyone gets that from.I've not seen anything from this league that suggests that.I thought their fixture allocations (playing a lot before Xmas) and quickly rearranging postponed games was a credit to them as not many ended up with a backlog in our league did they.

Yes I suppose they do still live in the dark ages by only allowing three subs but that is the only gripe I have against them.

I actually think that they would stand by their clubs in a big way if necessary unlike the SL who recently left Kings Lynn hanging out to dry with their lack of support when they objected to a proposed move to the NPL.

[Bob C]

Keith, can I take it that your happy to forego all the local interest games which breed extra income, and ask supporters to travel a couple of hundred miles on a boxing day or new years day etc. some supporters I am sure will follow the club wherever they go, but they can't all make it to distant clubs. to be honest its not right. Supporters also have families to look after:doh:

[SteveW]

I think the point Keith was making is that we don't have any local derbies next season, not what I would call local anyway. The two closest clubs are Ilkeston and Leek and they are over 40 miles away. After that it's Witton, Buxton and Eastwood who are all nearly 60 miles away.

So from that angle it doesn't particularly matter who we play. If you have to travel those sort of distances anyway then an extra few miles is irrelevant.

Not sure how it's the leagues fault that we don't have a league club local to us nor what you expect them to do about it. Just to back up RodH I remember him commenting last season how well the UniBond League was run. I don't think he'd be posting that here because he "dare not say anything else". He's the guy that deals with the league on an almost daily basis so he ought to know better than any of the rest of us.

[Bob C]

Steve you are quite correct in what you say, its the way the cookies crumble regarding fixtures, I have now doubt from an administrative point of view the league is good, What I am trying to say is that there are no local teams to help with the income of the club, I am sure you understand you need local clubs to stimulate interest,and all the other teams have asked the league to pair them with teams nearest to them, who can blame them. We need tavelling to far distances like a hole in the head at Christmas etc.

It is my experience that all football leagues are generally well run, I have had contact witrh all of them.

Its the F A's that I found problems with. but far and away the best is the English F.A. The Welsh being the worst of the bunch. Sweden and Norway are very good too.

As for local F A's they are full of persons who seem to be full of their own self importance, some of the decisions in the past that we have had to put up with has been a joke.

You can all shoot me down as much as you like but surely we need to generate as much income as possible at all times, but bank holiday's is a particular need. Is it not realistic to point out that playing the likes of Halesowen etc is more attractive than playing the likes of even our nearest club is not so attractive. bring the money in.

There seem to be a feeling of not caring about OUR supporters with regard to travelling. lets try and help them for a change:clap2:
At least my comments have stimulated some replies when it appeard the site was dying a death. a few day's ago.. keep up the good work lol:)

[MikeM]

It would be nice to think that Hednesford would be at the forefront of the strong but up to now ignored body of opinion which says that there should be three feeder leagues for the conference proper, one of which would be the Conference Midlands, however that term might be defined. It might have to go as far as Gloucstershire, Oxfordshire Cheshire and Lincs. The only people to be upset would be London clubs, who seem top get their way in every judgement by the FA, from Arsenal and West Ham downwards.
Do we ever voice such views or are we happy with the Neanderthal football served up in the Naaarth?

[Bob C]

Nice one Mike I agree:clap2:

[Bridgtown Buck]

I would have thought your most likely Christmas opponents would be Witton if Leek Town are paired elsewhere, easily one of the nearest journeys for you I think but obviously not near enough to be classed as a derby by any means...

We encountered a similar position during out first season in the Unibond Premier and we ended up with Witton over Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately midlands clubs are on a hiding to nothing in the Unibond it has to be said.

[abacus]

BB you have made a good start to the season no games played but top of the league alphabetically! The best way to solve the Bank Holiday situation is simple.Gain promotion and half the league teams are closer.A return of the Telford games would be something to look forward to.l

[Bridgtown Buck]

BB you have made a good start to the season no games played but top of the league alphabetically! The best way to solve the Bank Holiday situation is simple.Gain promotion and half the league teams are closer.A return of the Telford games would be something to look forward to.l

Agreed Abacus, would be great if the season ended now wouldn't it! :p

The CN is, of course, much better geographically for midlands clubs than the Northern League but - of course - as the sarcasm in your post implies promotion is far from 'simple.'

Did HTFC at any stage request a move back to the Southern Premier, as this would surely have suited you better with far more local fixtures? Obviously the FA would probably have rejected the request anyway but, as the saying goes, if you don't ask....

[abacus]

Looks like Scarborough won't be playing us at any time let alone Bank Holiday as sadly they are to re-form in lower league 21 teams next season

[Perton Pitman]

Bit of a shame that we will not be playing Scarborough. Does the Unibond League have sufficient time to get another team into our division or will we be left with 2 blank weekends? At least we can play League Cup games on those dates if so.:o

[abacus]

.No according to NLP the leagues are cast in stone and will go with reduced numbers after AGM on Sunday

[abacus]

P.P. There will be an odd number of teams so each Saturday one team will be without a game.That will still apply for the league cup

[Glyn]

..seems I started this thread in vain then if you're all gonna talk about Boro on here!

http://www.hednesfordtown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=188

:doh:

Welsh Prem ran with 17 teams last season after one club failed ground criteria, really weird having a Saturday off twice during the season (and of course you can guarantee that with postponements etc you'll end up with even more blank Saturdays)

:(

[abacus]

With fixtures out soon let's hope we are not the club to miss out on either first Saturday or Bank Holiday fixtures.

[abacus]

Buxton have missed out on probably most lucrative of Bank Holiday fixtures on Boxing Day.Bizarre that one of our free Saturdays is with two other teams(NFU and Prescott) but is there a message there as it is Trophy Semi final day?