This once again came into sharp focus at Cambridge City last night.
A day's work for most players before departing Amblecote at 4.00pm and then a 125 mile drive taking 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Not much time for a warm up to prepare for a match against a very fit looking and physically capable Cambridge side,no wonder we looked sluggish for the first hour.
The return journey was a nightmare,hideously ineffective diversionary signs lead to all sorts of confusion for both carloads of supporter's like myself and for the coach which resulted in the team bus arriving back at Amblecote after 1.30am i believe,in effect a 3 hour and 15 minute return journey on a foul night.
In a nutshell you have therefore a team of guys doing a full days work,travelling almost 300 miles ( with diversions ) and having to compete for 90+ minutes at a high physical level for not a lot of money each week.
I take my hat off to them,i was shattered by the time i got home at 12.20am last night and all i'd had to do was spectate,regardless of the fact these lads are 20 to 30 years younger than me it is still a tremendous effort.
By the time the players got home last night it's likely that some only had three or four hours sleep before setting out to work again,no wonder the last few weeks seemed to have caught up with them last night.
I wonder how long it will be before some clubs,even at out level will try to turn into full time operations,especially if funded by a wealthy benefactor?
My personal view is that although the number of promotion and relegation places into the Skrill Premier,North and South divisions would need to increase that there should be another attempt made to regionalise non league football into tighter areas that limit travel to no more than an hour or so UNTIL the Skrill Premier is reached.
There should be five relegation places down from Skrill Premier and four Skrill regional divisions feeding the Premier with only the champion's going up plus a play off winner from the four second placed regional Skrill leagues,the same format should be introduced at all levels below.
Anyway,the players have my utmost admiration for the commitment they have to give.
A day's work for most players before departing Amblecote at 4.00pm and then a 125 mile drive taking 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Not much time for a warm up to prepare for a match against a very fit looking and physically capable Cambridge side,no wonder we looked sluggish for the first hour.
The return journey was a nightmare,hideously ineffective diversionary signs lead to all sorts of confusion for both carloads of supporter's like myself and for the coach which resulted in the team bus arriving back at Amblecote after 1.30am i believe,in effect a 3 hour and 15 minute return journey on a foul night.
In a nutshell you have therefore a team of guys doing a full days work,travelling almost 300 miles ( with diversions ) and having to compete for 90+ minutes at a high physical level for not a lot of money each week.
I take my hat off to them,i was shattered by the time i got home at 12.20am last night and all i'd had to do was spectate,regardless of the fact these lads are 20 to 30 years younger than me it is still a tremendous effort.
By the time the players got home last night it's likely that some only had three or four hours sleep before setting out to work again,no wonder the last few weeks seemed to have caught up with them last night.
I wonder how long it will be before some clubs,even at out level will try to turn into full time operations,especially if funded by a wealthy benefactor?
My personal view is that although the number of promotion and relegation places into the Skrill Premier,North and South divisions would need to increase that there should be another attempt made to regionalise non league football into tighter areas that limit travel to no more than an hour or so UNTIL the Skrill Premier is reached.
There should be five relegation places down from Skrill Premier and four Skrill regional divisions feeding the Premier with only the champion's going up plus a play off winner from the four second placed regional Skrill leagues,the same format should be introduced at all levels below.
Anyway,the players have my utmost admiration for the commitment they have to give.