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Hectic schedule
Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date online: 04 February 2010
Penney’s worry over fixture backlog
PARK LIFE: THE fixture logjam is causing plenty of concern for Athletic boss Dave Penney.
Successive matches at home to Brentford and away at Stockport have been held back due to frozen and waterlogged pitches respectively.
It leaves Athletic facing the prospect of squeezing 21 matches into the final three months of the League One season — but the fixture list could get even more cramped soon.
The prospect of an arduous midweek trip to Southampton hangs in the air, with Saints holding a 1-0 lead from the away leg of their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern final against MK Dons.
Should they see out the return fixture at St Mary’s on Tuesday to reach the overall final, Saints will need to rearrange their home game with Athletic which is currently set for the end of March, as the Wembley showdown is played out on the same weekend.
Penney is hopeful that he will at least have three of his currently injured players back in the coming week as he battles to wrest the club away from the relegation zone.
“I don’t want to get to a situation where we are playing Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday again,” admitted the manager.
“That would be a real downer.
“The other side of the coin is, if you do get a little niggling injury — a seven to 10 days thing — you are not missing one game, it is three or four.
“We will try to keep the squad fit. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have Jon Worthington training with us, with Lewis Alessandra and Kelvin Lomax due back as well.
“We will have to direct our training towards matches now and make sure players are fresh and ready for games.”
Comments
Dave Penney in 'glass half empty' shock.
For some, four games in a week would present the welcome opportunity to snatch 12 points in seven days and rescue something from a disastrous season.
We will try to keep the squad fit. We will have to direct our training towards matches now, and make sure players are fresh and ready for games. Am I reading this right! What would he normally do send them out for a pint and a curry!! I do hope to god the Chron is mis-quoting DP as I continually find his comments baffling.
We ve struggled to have fully fit players when there's only been one game a week,what chance have we got when we have to play 2 or 3 games a week to meet the fixtures not that I'm looking to be negative, but it doesn't bode well.Lets hope that we can start scoring and get the points on the board.
he is just pre warning us of fatigue when we dont pick up enough points. i bet hes glad gives him an excuse
Leave Dave Penney alone you fickle lot of bloggers!
He's got his hands tied as far as money is concerned hence the load of injuries, plus the weather has conspired against him.I predict just scraping staying up this season, but some team will get really battered in the process. Then maybe next year the nucleus of a team? Big Joe needed 4 seasons to get going....By the way, in about 1980 we had undersoil heating so this fixture back-up fiasco would not have occurred then..........
Then when Latics do batter some club 5-0 out of sheer frustration, all we'll hear is "Dave Penney this, Dave Penney that, Dave Penney can swim like a fish etc.etc"
More rubbish from Penney. There are 14 Saturdays until the end of the season and 21 games left. Quite simple to work out we'll be playing every Saturday and then every other mid-week. Hardly the chaos Penney would have us believe!!
Dave Penney says he could not give a monkeys what the fans think, lets see if he does when nobody buys a season ticket next year. OH BY THE WAY PENNEY, WE DONT LIKE YOU SO PACK YOUR BAGS AND GO AND GOOD RIDDENCE. HOPE YOU DONT LAST MUCH LONGER AND TAKE ALL YOUR POOR SIGNINGS WITH YOU BECAUSE WE COULDN'T GIVE THEM AWAY IN A LUCKY BAG.
Have Your Say
“I don’t want to get to a situation where we are playing Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday again.”
Just getting a team that can actually play ONE day a week would make a nice change.
By ammypam @ 04/02/2010 12:04:07