End of season fixture backlog - 3 away games to be rearranged

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BoysInBlue

BoysInBlue

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With Crystal Palace winning tonight and reaching the FA Cup semi finals, that means our game with them scheduled for semi final weekend on April 23rd will need to be rearranged.

That also means we now have 3 away games to be rearranged, none of which yet have a date - Sunderland, Liverpool and Palace away.

What makes it tricky is that there is a limit to the number of available midweek dates, due to both the end of March international break, Liverpool's potential further progress in the Europa League, and also that UEFA do not allow/frown upon Premier League/FA Cup games going head to head with midweek CL/Europa dates (see this week's Hull vs Arsenal game, which had to kick off at 7pm to avoid going head to head with CL games - it only did so on that date as an absolute last resort, due to the 6th round being this weekend). Yet another thing compounding the backlog is a little known Premier League rule that no club is allowed more than 2 away league games or 2 home league games in succession.

Looking at our current remaining scheduled fixtures and potentially available midweek dates:

Sat March 12: Chelsea H - FA Cup

Tues/Wed/Thurs March 15/16/17 - CL/Europa league games

Sat March 19: Arsenal H

March 21st to April 2nd ruled out - International Break.

Sun April 3rd: Man Utd A

Tues/Wed/Thurs April 5/6/7 - CL/Europa league games

Sat April 9th: Watford A

Tues/Wed/Thurs April 12/13/14 - CL/Europa league games

Sat April 16th: Southampton H

Free midweek - Tues/Wed April 19/20

Sat April 23rd: Not playing Palace away now on this date. Liverpool & Sunderland are both playing league games elsewhere that weekend, so neither could be booked as potential opponents on that date.

Tues/Wed/Thurs April 26/27/28 - CL/Europa league games

Sat April 30th: Bournemouth H

Tues/Wed/Thurs May 3/4/5 - CL/Europa league games

Sat May 7th: Leicester A

Free midweek - Tues/Wed May 10/11

Sun May 15th Norwich H

As you can see from that, there are only 2 free midweeks that don't have any CL/Europa league footy on them, between now and the end of the season.

There's no chance of the season being extended to play the remaining game either.

What may need to happen is for a game to be played on a Monday night, 48 hours after a Saturday game. Not ideal at all, but they do it at Christmas.

Looking at the way the fixtures are for Palace/Sunderland and Liverpool too, we might have to play Palace away on Monday April 11th, 2 days after playing Watford on the Saturday April 9th. This might actually not be a bad idea, as the team could stay down in London after the Watford game, ready for the Palace game. Cuts down on the travelling 'to and from' too. That would get one of the 3 games out of the way.

The other 2 would be played on the remaining 2 free midweeks - so potentially a relegation decider vs Sunderland (hopefully not for us, for them) in the penultimate game of the season on May 10/11. Or even a derby match vs Liverpool on May 10/11. Whichever isn't played in May would be on April 19/20.

There was also an article on some of this a few weeks ago, from a Sunderland perspective in the Chronicle that's worth a read: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...ews/sunderland-vs-everton-next-month-10928315
 
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And some folk want a winter break, just imagine the mess we'd be in if we had to fit 3 weeks of regular fixtures in as well.

I fail to see why they don't have many more midweek games in Aug/Sep/Oct. Players are fitter, pitches are better, the FA cup hasn't even started. Should be 2 games a week for the first 4 weeks at least.
 
The Cowboy said:
And some folk want a winter break, just imagine the mess we'd be in if we had to fit 3 weeks of regular fixtures in as well.

I fail to see why they don't have many more midweek games in Aug/Sep/Oct. Players are fitter, pitches are better, the FA cup hasn't even started. Should be 2 games a week for the first 4 weeks at least.
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Fa cup and league cup ties should be made single games that go to pens if it ends in a draw. That would help.
 
The Cowboy said:
And some folk want a winter break, just imagine the mess we'd be in if we had to fit 3 weeks of regular fixtures in as well.

I fail to see why they don't have many more midweek games in Aug/Sep/Oct. Players are fitter, pitches are better, the FA cup hasn't even started. Should be 2 games a week for the first 4 weeks at least.
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Good Call.
 

Just let the gamers play the matches our in cyber space. The top gamer from each club go head to head for a virtual 3 pointer with the manager of each team deciding the gamers tactics.

We got to move with the times apparently.
 

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