Daish complains about fixture backlog

FA TROPHY heroes Ebbsfleet United eased their horrendous fixture congestion by going out of the Kent Senior Cup last night, writes Stephen McCartney.

Twenty-four hours after THAT NIGHT at Stonebridge Road, knocking Welsh giants Wrexham out of the FA Trophy, The Fleet surrendered their grasp of the Kent Senior Cup, going down 2-1 at Ryman League Division One South side Whitstable Town.

The Fleet had eased past Cray Wanderers 4-0 in last year’s final, which was held back to a pre-season date this term, due to the Fleet’s glorious run in the FA Trophy and the Wands reaching the Ryman One South play-off final.

Fielding a weakened side, the Fleet’s line-up unsurprisingly contained nobody from the previous night’s epic encounter with Wrexham, although Sam Mott, Dean Pooley and Matthew Judge - substitutes for the Trophy game - started against Marc Seager’s side, with Judge scoring.

Others who featured included Paul McCarthy, making his first appearance since a run-out in a friendly against Dagenham & Redbridge earlier this year and a number of PASE players - Steven Springett, Myron Turbine, Tom Parkinson, Sam Callander and Michael West. The remaining two players that turned out at the KRBS Belmont were Danny Slatter and Kezie Ibe.

The Fleet have sixteen Blue Square Premier games left this season - crammed into the final eight weeks of the season - and the Stonebridge Road outfit still have to play a Setanta Shield Quarter-Final tie at Crawley Town (Thursday, 5 March) and those two FA Trophy semi-final clashes with Stevenage Borough (14^th and 21^st March) - and hopefully another trip to Wembley Stadium in May.

But the Fleet don’t play their next league game until Sunday, 8^th March, when York City visit Stonebridge Road - and boss Liam Daish wants to know why his side have yet another blank Saturday coming up.

“I can’t understand how us and Kettering haven’t got a game Saturday, and this was set out at the beginning,” Daish told www.kentishfootball.co.uk on Tuesday night.

“I think it’s crazy, why we’ve not got a game and now we’re going to lose two Saturday’s because of the Trophy and then it becomes silly, silly football (playing) Tuesdays (and) Thursdays.

“It’s not right, it shouldn’t be happening!”

The Fleet have bagged 34 points from their 30 Blue Square Premier games and with the real possibility of winning the FA Trophy again, Daish knows his side must start picking up league points as his side are only two points clear of the relegation zone.

“We’ve got to put it (the FA Trophy) on the back burner,” he said.

“We want to get some points on the board. I’ve said to the lads, come on let’s get out where we are (in the table) and get into that top half of the table and then we’ll enjoy the Trophy.”

Meanwhile, the last day of the Blue Square Premier season has been put back 25 hours, due to Setanta coverage. That means Salisbury City now arrive at Stonebridge Road on Sunday, 26^th April (4pm kick off).

Visit Ebbsfleet United’s website: www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk