CHRISTMAS CHEERS FOR COUNTY – BUT NOT IF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE CAN HELP IT

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Christmas comes but once a year. A time for families gathering around the tree; watching the kids open presents; over indulgence and then collapsing comatose to watch yet another Indiana Jones movie. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy Christmas but one of the main pleasures is looking forward to the Boxing Day game a chance to get out, clear the head and work off some of the excesses.

So each July when the fixtures are published I eagerly look to see where County are on the opening day, (invariably away); when we were at Hartlepool, (will it be 1 overcoat or 2); when to order the suit of armour for Cardiff’s visit and whether we’ve been favoured with a decent Boxing Day game.

Disappointment usually reigns at this point and as each year goes by my astonishment at the vagaries of the fixture computer grows. All logic suggests that it’s probably the best day of the season in terms of crowd potential – the fixture planners should be capable of coming up with a programme that enables supporters to watch their team. Money is tight and public transport non-existent so local matches should be the order of the day. However logic doesn’t rule but there again have we a right as the ordinary supporters to expect it.

A number of years ago there used to be fixtures on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I believe it was the practice to play the same team home and away and the matches were invariably local and usually derbies. This season the Football League have reverted to a two game programme on successive days but previous logic seems to have disappeared. Blackpool at home on the 27th is fine for us, and indeed not too bad for the visitors who can be home within the hour, but a trip to Reading on the following day is far less than ideal.

I can’t believe with a bit of thought a better arrangement couldn’t have been made. Certainly in Division 2, where the clubs are in 3 broad geographical groupings, (North, South West and Wales, and the South East), it would be fairly simple to arrange fixtures whereby each clubs away game would involve a trip of 90 minutes at most. To do this would not only maximise gates it would also be useful for the away followers. Given the general attitude of the hierarchy this is too much to hope for.

Cynicism suggests these arrangements are yet another product of the administrators desire to take football away from the man in the street following on from all seated stadia, police interference with regard to all ticket matches, and the manipulation of the game by the media. However the fixture issue isn’t a new problem and having looked back over our Christmas fixtures over the last 10 years I can only come to the conclusion but it is sheer bureaucratic incompetence.

County and equally the supporters seem to have suffered significantly their hands of the fixture compilers during that period. As a starting point it’s reasonable to expect a home game on Boxing Day every other year. 8 away games in 10 years doesn’t suggest that we have had reasonable treatment and some of these games have been both physically and metaphorically beyond the bounds of reason. Latterly, trips to Preston 1991 and the planned,  but postponed, game at Rotherham last year weren’t too bad, both being accessible within the hour. The keener fans probably didn’t feel put out by travelling to Scunthorpe, (1984), Mansfield, (1985), and Lincoln, (1986), and were doubtedly caught out by the late postponement of the game at Hartlepool in 1990. However they must have blanched at the trip to Bristol City in 1983 – a 350 mile round trip, no public transport and,given our performances at that time, likely defeat at the end of it.

If however conclusive proof is needed at the total lack of intelligence of the authorities the 1988 Boxing Day game gives incontrovertible evidence. If a computer had been programmed to ensure the longest trip of the season, to the most inaccessible venue, at the most inconvenient time it would have picked Torquay for the morning kick off and so it proved.

So giving past lunacy like that I suppose we should be fairly happy this year. There will be no pre dawn start to some far flung destination for the first of the Christmas games – we’ll just have to postpone that pleasure until the following day. But don’t get complacent – the record of the last 10 years virtually guarantees an away match on Boxing Day for the next four seasons at least. If sanity prevails we’ll have a nice jaunt to Oldham as they join us in Division One but don’t count on it because past experience points to a visit to Millwall.  

Cheers!!

December 1993