Matches stacking up
AS Daventry Town close in on the UCL championship manager Ady Fuller is far from happy with a crowded end-of-season fixture list which will see his players asked to play half a dozen matches in a 12-day spell starting at the end of this month.
With no extension planned to the snow-hit campaign, the Town will sign off with a game against their number one title rivals St Neots at Kester Way on May Day. Long Buckby and St Ives too face a huge backlog of fixtures in the next few weeks.
Bucks' boss Glenn Botterill will not have been thrilled either to find that his team was without a midweek outing on Tuesday night despite still having another 14 Premier Division fixtures to fulfil.
Meanwhile Daventry Town still face another five journeys into Lincolnshire with the Deeping Rangers, Bourne and Blackstones games all due to take place in midweek.
"My players all have jobs of work to go to and this will stretch our resources to the limit," claimed Fuller.
"League officials knew earlier in the year that the bad weather would lead to fixture chaos but a Tuesday night in early February was allowed to pass by with no Premier Division fixtures even though the weather had temporarily relented.
"Then Newport Pagnell declined to switch venues with us when Communications Park was playable and Willen Road wasn't which also added to our problems.
With only another eight games to play St Neots have no problems but all the other title challengers are in the same boat!
"In the circumstances it's just as well I have added the experienced Arron Parkinson and Tommy Kinch to the squad as it's going to be all hands to the pump in the final countdown to the season.
"How do you come to terms with the fact that we twice have to play three times in a week before having no midweek match at all in the week starting on Sunday, April 18?"
Perhaps too it is just as well that the Town fell by the wayside in both the FA Vase and the UCL KO Cup or another four matches would have been added to a crowded run-in which also the contentious NFA Senior Cup final at Corby.
Town officials have already sent a formal letter of complaint to the NFA over the decision to give the Steelmen home advantage at the Rockingham Triangle even though cup finals are almost invariably played on
neutral grounds.
As it is the Town have yet to play Sleaford and Newport Pagnell twice before winding up the campaign with long away trips to Holbeach, Blackstones (Stamford) and St Neots having returned to the top of the Premier Division table with Saturday's 2-1 home win over Boston Town.
In terms of average attendances Daventry Town (102) lie only fourth behind St Neots (261) whose derby with St Ives last Saturday attracted the largest UCL crowd of the season when 536 spectators passed through the gates.
St Ives (163) are second best with Wellingborough Town (115) surprisingly third in the attendance league ahead of Sleaford (108) and the Town. Long Buckby were tenth best of the
75 mark.
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Weather for Daventry
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
