Guiseley away OFF

The more games you play the less training you need, the players love it and so do I
If we are good enough we will get promoted, Trophy or not

Great, I've just organised a few days off next month to take in the Woking away game which won't be happening on it's original date either.

I'm going down to my brothers in Surrey on the Friday before. Hopefully they'll rearrange it for the following Tuesday whilst I'm still down there. Will probably miss the 2nd leg of the trophy semi-final now if we get there, unless we're away at a Southern team. (Sutton would be good if they're still in it as that's not far from where my brother lives)

But we wouldn't have played two more games had we been knocked out...Guiseley would still be off and Saturdays game would've been off because Woking are in the cup...

The trophy does not hurt teams, their own poor form hurts them. We aren't top because we were average at best throughout August and September, fixture pile up would happen regardless, it did last year, if we haven't figured that out now then town deserve intercourse all.

The FA trophy does my head in . It's is the most illogical, badly run competition ever.

The explanation why it's not a Tuesday night competition is because part timers can't get time off work on Tuesday. Why is then they are suddenly available for replays? Surely it's logical that it's either Tuesday night competition or one without replays?

Nobody has explained to me why it's not a tightly regionalised competition - surely this would lower travel costs, increase gates and make it easier for those part timers.

Nobody has explained to me why this isn't played earlier (or pre) season. When pitches are better and there's less chance of postponements.

None of it makes any sense!!!

I'm guessing (and it's a complete punt) it's not early in the season (the trophy starts early October) because of the early rounds of the FA Cup. Teams would then be moaning about not getting any league games in before the bad weather starts.

If I'm honest I really don't like the Trophy.  I've been bored to tears for virtually all of the minutes we've played in this competition this season and that's a similar story in previous seasons.

But this is the non-league version of the FA Cup.  Whilst we don't want to be non-league and have ambitions of returning to the wonder that is the Football League Trophy, this is still a big deal to the vast majority of clubs in the non-league pyramid.  

Yeah it's badly run and yeah it causes havoc with the fixtures year on year, but please let's not turn into those fans who look down our noses at competitions beneath us.  It wouldn't matter when the trophy games were played, it would result in the same amount of games and a pile-up at some point.

Besides, this season it's provided vital game time for the likes of Pearson, East, Marshall, Pittman and to a more recent extent Henderson and Nolan.  On Saturday it gave Horwood a much needed 90 minutes under his belt rather than going in cold to league fixture.

Quoted from diehardmariner

If I'm honest I really don't like the Trophy.  I've been bored to tears for virtually all of the minutes we've played in this competition this season and that's a similar story in previous seasons.

But this is the non-league version of the FA Cup.  Whilst we don't want to be non-league and have ambitions of returning to the wonder that is the Football League Trophy, this is still a big deal to the vast majority of clubs in the non-league pyramid.  

Yeah it's badly run and yeah it causes havoc with the fixtures year on year, but please let's not turn into those fans who look down our noses at competitions beneath us.  It wouldn't matter when the trophy games were played, it would result in the same amount of games and a pile-up at some point.

Besides, this season it's provided vital game time for the likes of Pearson, East, Marshall, Pittman and to a more recent extent Henderson and Nolan.  On Saturday it gave Horwood a much needed 90 minutes under his belt rather than going in cold to league fixture.

I feel the same.

Quoted from horsforthmariner

The FA trophy does my head in . It's is the most illogical, badly run competition ever.

The explanation why it's not a Tuesday night competition is because part timers can't get time off work on Tuesday. Why is then they are suddenly available for replays? Surely it's logical that it's either Tuesday night competition or one without replays?

Nobody has explained to me why it's not a tightly regionalised competition - surely this would lower travel costs, increase gates and make it easier for those part timers.

Nobody has explained to me why this isn't played earlier (or pre) season. When pitches are better and there's less chance of postponements.

None of it makes any sense!!!

None of it makes sense for the handful of clubs near the top of the Conference, but for the bulk of the non-league teams who can enter it, it's a valuable source of income. I suspect that's why it never changes format, and why replays exist. But I agree it would be hard to devise a tournament that is more disruptive as all the ties are played during the part of the season most likely to have weather-related postponements. It would be better as a pre-season or midweek competition but it will never happen. The simple answer is to deliberately lose in Round 1, if all the top sides did that (and Forest Green always seem to), then it might force changes to be made. But as long as teams like us actually make an effort to win it it's always attractive to the bulk of the entrants.

Quoted from GrimRob

None of it makes sense for the handful of clubs near the top of the Conference, but for the bulk of the non-league teams who can enter it, it's a valuable source of income. I suspect that's why it never changes format, and why replays exist. But I agree it would be hard to devise a tournament that is more disruptive as all the ties are played during the part of the season most likely to have weather-related postponements. It would be better as a pre-season or midweek competition but it will never happen. The simple answer is to deliberately lose in Round 1, if all the top sides did that (and Forest Green always seem to), then it might force changes to be made. But as long as teams like us actually make an effort to win it it's always attractive to the bulk of the entrants.

I agree rob we've handled it badly imo 100% focus on the league for me ,in all honesty how many will go to the final if we got there ?

Quoted from diehardmariner

But this is the non-league version of the FA Cup.  

No it isn't because we're in the FA Cup. League Cup perhaps, what was Auto Windscreen yes.

A moot point I know, just saying