Halesowen Town on Boxing Day - should match be moved to Sat 27th instead?

During the early part of the season i had a conversation with Clive Eades our secretary in which he suggested he thought that moving our home match with Halesowen from Friday 26th to Saturday 27th was on his agenda,i said i thought that was a fantastic idea,however,speaking to him at the Blaby match it seems that nothing has been done so far to get it changed.

Personally,i thought the idea was a "no brainer",on the Boxing Day there is a full programme of football up and down the country and West Brom are at home to Man City,this means we will lose a lot of fan's that day AND it means we struggle to get official stewards that we normally borrow from Albion.

On that Saturday the 27th there is going to be no other football,most of us will end up getting dragged around the shops by our partner's,surely we can make best use of this opportunity?

I reckon that playing it on the Saturday could add up to 500 on the gate,i can see a 1500 gate becoming a 2000+ gate just for moving one day forward.

It's not as if we're playing again on the Monday either,even if we do play on the Saturday 27th the next match isn't until the Rushall match on Thursday 1st Jan so theres plenty of recovery time.

I'm sure a few will disagree but i'd be interested in everyone's thoughts?

As an Albion (and Stourbridge flexi) season ticket holder I obviously agree. My thought would be that the 27th is a good idea, although there is talk of an additional league programme on the 28th to catch-up on postponements. What about an early kick off on Boxing Day is that is the case?

I want it moved because there is no public transport on boxing day and I can't get there.

Stourbridge81 wrote:As an Albion (and Stourbridge flexi) season ticket holder I obviously agree. My thought would be that the 27th is a good idea, although there is talk of an additional league programme on the 28th to catch-up on postponements. What about an early kick off on Boxing Day is that is the case?

I heard the same thing about an additional round of fixtures on the 28th. Perhaps Clive asked the league about switching Halesowen to the 27th and they said no because they wanted to keep the 28th as a reserve day all along.

Hope we stick to 3pm on Boxing Day - a morning kick off would be an early start for me after all that turkey

Purely personal and purely selfish, I want it to stay Boxing Day - I cant imagine boxing day without a Stour game, also now I am working many Saturdays ( and I have 2 weddings on the 27th) I am glad to be able to go to this game.

I have heard we may be at Blyth on the Sunday

It's boxing day. Full set to be played 28th.

Jack wrote:It's boxing day. Full set to be played 28th.

That's a massive shame,surely it could've been arranged so that this "additional" game was played Boxing Day and the Halesowen match on the Sunday the 28th.

I get really frustrated at times when these good commercial chances get missed all for the sake of a bit of conversation between clubs and the league.

Why not like the old days,play the home and away games back to back,at our place on the 28th and the reverse fixture at Yeltz on New Years day,that way we both get chance to maximise the opportunity Xmas/New Year brings.

Not fussed personally between Boxing Day and the 27th.

I reckon the full league programme on the 28th which is to be arranged after the FA Trophy results at the weekend are known, has spoilt that particular plan.

However I would hope it would be one of the more local games we have to re-arrange (any except Blyth and Grantham) due to the distance so close to Christmas - eg Ilkeston, Witton, Barwell.

Who's to say they aren't trying to get Halesowen on the 28th though - although that would mean a lot of rejigging of other fixtures. Can't see it happening personally.

They play back to back at the level above Devil. Not too fussed either way really. Would rather it Boxing Day if anything.

Blyth away confirmed for the 28th

I spoke to ian a month or so ago about this and with an anticipated crowd of 1500 and also the view that there is a bit of bad blood between the fans it was said that more stewards would be needed to police the game.WBA and walsall are at home so there is a problem with getting more stewards that day.i also spoke to tony the head steward at halesowen and he had already spoke to the club and it was a case of the two clubs getting together then speaking to the FA and put forward their concerns about not having the correct number of stewards to keep the peace.
Worcester had a crowd related problem yesterday because they didn't have enough staff on duty and they only had 1000 with approx 50 away fans. I'm sure we don't want to see crowd problems down stour, there are a lot of kids , women and older fans that come for the football and not to see trouble on the terraces.
If they have to pay for police it would cost the club a small fortune.

stour_boy wrote:Blyth away confirmed for the 28th

The planning of an imbecile.

Why are the fixtures left in the hand's of a cretin at the Northern Premier Leage?

I am sure we would have had some input into the Blyth date. I suppose we should be grateful that it isn't a midweek.

We had an input.

Jack wrote:We had an input.

Clive has told me wee were given the option of playing it on the 28th December or a Tuesday night. On that basis I know which I would prefer.

UlsterJim wrote:

Jack wrote:We had an input.

Clive has told me wee were given the option of playing it on the 28th December or a Tuesday night.  On that basis I know which I would prefer.

My comment CLEARLY states that i blame the league for this Blyth situation and NOT Clive.

Being dealt a hand like that sort of choice is not Clive's fault in any way and in the circumstances he made the right choice.

My point is that during a holiday season,a family time,players and fan's should be given matches as close to home as geographically possible,a normal Saturday with an overnight stop on the Friday ( like with the Workington game ) would seem to be a better option,the league should look at this sort of situation more closely.

Like i said,no blame on our secretary so let me make that perfectly clear!!

Bad blood between Stour and Halesowen fans? Never heard such rot. I've been to many a derby between the two sides and not experienced anything but banter, a bit edgy at times, but nothing more. I can't stand the buggers, no more than they like us, good, that's how it should be.

Any trouble on the day will be as a direct result of Albion and Wolves morons intent on causing grief, and frankly, as much as a date switch would have suited me better, if Albion are at home and relieved any problems likely to occur, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I was under the impression that there was a blank Saturday in March for the purpose of fitting in any inconvenient fixtures, i.e. Blyth away? Seems a bit ridiculous to arrange it for 28th December, especially with the probability of the weather taking a turn for the worse by then and forcing a potential postponement anyway.

Hands up if you love Nath.

There is a free weekend March. Seeing as we have to fit Witton in, it would have made much sense for us to travel to Witton on the 28th and Blyth in March.

Jack wrote:There is a free weekend March. Seeing as we have to fit Witton in, it would have made much sense for us to travel to Witton on the 28th and Blyth in March.

My thoughts exactly Jack. In case of any inclement weather on 28th Dec, I'd much rather face the midweek trip to Witton as opposed to a possible further rearranged trip to Blyth. Makes no sense to me. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation somewhere???

Tricky Tree wrote:Hands up if you love Nath.

I've got a new number now Tricky, as part of my Virgin package. I'll text you in a bit mate.

My understanding is that as that March Saturday is also the semi finals of the league cup weekend - if we arranged Blyth for that date then either of us got to the semi finals of the competition then we'd have to postpone the March game and then we'd almost certainly have to go on a Tuesday night.

Can't please everyone but at least it's not a Tuesday.

Completely agree with Aled. The fewer the morons from league clubs turn up the better. I've never experienced any trouble from Halesowen fans.

I cant believe the league would schedule any league cup ties for a Saturday, semi-finals or not. I was under the impression that all league cups in every regional league were strictly midweek competitions.

Doodson Cup, it's what it's all about!