Sunday league call-offs show where footballers’ priorities lie

COMMENT by KEVIN RICHARDSON, Sports Editor
SIX matches went ahead in the Oldham Sunday League last weekend.

Conditions were perfect — not a cloud in the sky — but obviously players and officials preferred to watch the blue moon rising in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

So are Sunday footballers in Oldham happy to play second fiddle to the Premier League? It looks that way.

Clubs were given the option to postpone matches due to the derby kicking off at 1.30pm and many of them took up the offer from the league.

The league wanted to avoid 11th-hour fixture calls-off, and you cannot blame them for that.

It was a generous gesture. Some would say overgenerous given the usual fixture backlog the league faces every season.

But if a player or club official had any affinity to their pub, club or community side, they would have been on Clayton playing fields, Snipe Clough or New Barn doing their stuff.

When teams are kicking their heels in December, January and February, trying to figure out when they can rearrange midweek games that nobody wants, I hope they will remember that fine day in October.

For those United fans in the Sunday league, I bet you wished you had given Old Trafford a swerve.