‘Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou is complaining about it and his players are elite level’
Strathspey Thistle boss Ryan Esson is calling for some answers from Highland League chief as his side face an enormous fixture pile-up.
Saturday’s game at home to Clach was the latest to be postponed because the Seafield Park ground was too frozen for the match to proceed.
It means that the Jags now have to somehow fit in 15 league games in just two months with the season due to conclude on April 12.
But the Grantown club is still waiting to hear about most of when their postponed games will be played.
He said that his players are in for a very tough run of matches and believes that if even just one more game is called off then they might have to resort to requesting an extension to the current season.
“All these games in eight weeks is a tough run,” said Esson.
“Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou is complaining about it and his players are elite level with some of the best facilities in the world to enable them to recover.
“Our boys are needing to get up and go to work in the morning and they are going to have to keep going again and again with the games for two months.”
Esson continued: “If we have another game called off then I think our season will definitely need to be extended.
“But at the moment we still have a couple of free Wednesdays so we might manage it.
“But the Highland League committee do not seem to be re-arranging the fixtures in a hurry.
“We have four games to rescheduled and we have not been informed by them on when any of these will be played.
“They need to start getting ahead on this.
“I have players’ welfare to think about and I am going to have to ask many of them to play every minute.
“We only have a certainly number of players for specific positions or I am going to have to ask players to deputise in positions that they are not comfortable in.
“We are at the bottom of the Highland League and we can not get away from the fact that we need to get out of there.
“It is our future as a club as well. We need the best chance to prepare for the remaining games.”
He observed: “There should be more communication from the league. All I want to know is when these games are going to be played so we can prepare as a squad and a club.
“The club of course needs to know too for arranging hospitality and the commercial side. The fans also need to know.”
The main focus for Esson now though is just getting back to playing and tomorrow’s game away to Formartine.
Esson said: “I am just hoping that we can now get a couple of games in soon as the weather looks like it is going to improve.
“I do not know about Grantown though.
The ground is still rock solid as the frost and ice has gone in so deep.
“If that is the case I am unsure at this stage if we can reverse a fixture as we are meant to be hosting Keith a week on Saturday.”
Esson was going to watch Formartine take on Hermes FC in the semi-final of the Aberdeenshire Shield at home midweek.
Fraserburgh had been undefeated in 10 league games since losing at Lossiemouth in September but they went down to a 2-1 defeat at Formartine United.
Two quick goals inside the opening 15 minutes by Stuart Smith and Scott Adams set up United’s success, with Aidan Sopel pulling one back in the closing 10 minutes.
Esson said: “They are a good team with a lot of quality players. They play pretty direct and we are expecting a tough game.”
