Fixture congestion will really test our squad - Daish

EBBSFLEET UNITED boss Liam Daish is preparing his troops for their mammoth ELEVEN game period this month, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Fleet climbed out of the Blue Square Premier relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Altrincham at Stonebridge Road last night, courtesy of Ricky Shakes’ sixth minute finish.

The Kent side have collected 41 points from 35 games - just one point above the drop zone - but they play almost a quarter of their league campaign in just 25 days, starting with a trip to 13^th placed Eastbourne Borough tomorrow night.

Daish’s troops leapfrogged over both York City and Grays Athletic with their seventh home win of the season last night, but face an almighty run-in between now and the end of the season.

Fleet’s home form, meanwhile, should maintain their Blue Square Premier status for another season, but it’s the amount of games in a short space of time that has perplexed the Fleet boss.

“It’s not fair,” he bemoaned, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk last night. “Any team, or any professional team wouldn’t be asked to play that amount of fixtures in such a short space of time.

“You’ve got to look after players and at least let them recover. We had injuries out today to Derek Duncan, Giuseppe Sole, Luis Cumbers, and (Mark) Ricketts came off today. ~

“It’s going to really test the depth of our squad.”

The Fleet travel to Eastbourne Borough tomorrow night, before returning to Stonebridge Road on Saturday to face second-from-bottom side Northwich Victoria - a must-win game.

A trip to Mansfield Town (7 April), is followed by a home game against Kidderminster Harriers just 48 hours later, before the busy Easter weekend, with a trip to Stevenage Borough (11 April) and a home game against already relegated Lewes on Easter Monday.

Once they’ve got through that, the Fleet travel to Histon on a Thursday night (16 April) before travelling to play Weymouth just two days later.

The Fleet play three games in the final week of the season, with a home game against Wrexham (21 April), an away game at Northwich Victoria just 48 hours later, before they end the season at home to Salisbury City on Sunday, 26 April (4pm), hopefully with enough points to maintain their status.

With so many games, in a short space of time, Daish even got confused about the date of their next game at Eastbourne Borough.

“It’s a big effort, we need that big effort again on Saturday, sorry on Tuesday, Thursday sorry,” he said.

“We need that effort but we might have to change that around again and freshen it up again to give us more fresh legs, fresh resources if you like.”

Despite having 27 players listed on the back of last night’s programme, Daish played down the chances of being able to rotate his squad.

“I’ve got a big squad, but today (at least) six of them are injured, so that soon becomes the bare sixteen, seventeen,” he added.

“As I say, I’ve been in situations before as a player but never as horrendous as we’re in at the moment.”

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

Eastbourne Borough v Ebbsfleet United
Blue Square Premier
Thursday 2^nd April 2009
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Langney Sports Club, Priory Lane, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 7QH