“I think it is not right,” griped Erik ten Hag, surveying Manchester United’s fixture schedule. “When we start talking about it, I get really angry,” seethed Jürgen Klopp, bemoaning two games a week.
Those blessed with charter aircrafts and elite recovery facilities might spare a thought for the lower orders of English football. The wettest winter on record has taken a scything toll on schedules for teams without undersoil heating and drainage systems. Many non-league clubs have reached pile-up situations, though none quite like the Berkshire club Sandhurst Town, of the Combined Counties League Division One, step six in the pyramid system, who this week played – and won – on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Saturday’s home match against the west London club Rayners Lane will be the Fizzers’ seventh game in 10 days. After that come fixtures on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
The aim is to chase down Berks County to claim the Division One title. Promotion to the Premier Division is in their hands despite Berks winning 2-1 at Sandhurst’s Bottom Meadow last Thursday. “We were very poor that night,” says the academy director and coach Liam Parrington, a 37-year-old who came out of a retirement he dates as “eight to 10 years ago” to help along a group made up mostly of 17- to 20-year-old academy players stepping up into a seniors league. “They were banging on the dressing room walls,” he says of that defeat by bitter rivals Berks. “But in a way, that kicked us on.”
Thurs 6 April Bedfont (a) D 2-2
Sat 8 Cove (h) W 3-2
Mon 10 Langley (a) W 3-2
Thurs 13 Berks County (h) L 2-1
Sat 15 Eversley & California (a) W 3-0
Mon 17 FC Deportivo Galicia (h) W 4-0
Tues 18 Bedfont (h) W 1-0
Weds 19 Molesey (h) W 1-0
Thurs 20 Woodley United (a) W 1-0
Sat 22 Rayners Lane (h)
Mon 24 Brook House (a)
Weds 26 Rising Ballers (a)
Sat 29 Spartans Youth (a)
Kayne Steinborn-Busse, the local businessman who sponsors the club and owns the SB football academy from which most Sandhurst players derive, has embargoed any Arsenal/Newcastle-style dressing room celebrations on Instagram. That will be allowed only if the job is completed by a squad featuring his son Louie, 23, whose duties include goalkeeper, chairman and, as a trained osteopath, physio.
Louie’s brother Jude serves as groundsman. On Tuesday, Bottom Meadow, which also houses sister club Bracknell Town, was given the night off for the roller to work its magic. Sandhurst players and staff staged a whip-round to hire the 3G pitch at Ascot, where Haydon Vaughan’s first-half penalty was enough to defeat Bedfont FC 1-0. Next came a return to Bottom Meadow and a leggy, tense 1-0 win over Molesey. An away trip to Woodley United on Thursday, with Ben Harris scoring a late winner and celebrating with a knee slide after a cross from Logan Coles completed the midweek workload. The club’s understandably excitable social media account described it thus: “4 wins. 4 days. 4 clean sheets … on to Saturday!!”
How did Sandhurst arrive at this situation? An icy, extended winter and sodden spring cut into their fixture list, with cry-offs from opponents continuing into the season’s latter weeks. “We’ve travelled to one place and four times it’s been called off on arrival,” says Parrington.
Even clubs with 3G pitches have cancelled matches through freezing weather and floods. Sharing with Bracknell, themselves going for promotion in the Isthmian League’s Southern South Division, adds another variable. Parrington says: “We’re quite blessed with an academy setup with 25 to 30 boys within the squad. As soon as we saw the fixtures we thought this was fantastic. Everyone gets to play now. Let’s see if we can break a record playing and winning games, and see if we can get promotion.”
Steinborn-Busse says without a tweet by Ollie Bayliss, the BBC’s non-league specialist, revealing an “impossible situation of having 11 games to play in 10 days”, an extension of the season would not have happened. “Even extending the season by a week we have to play every other day at best,” says Steinborn-Busse. “They should front-load the season; it’s disappointing it’s taken social media pressure.”
“Leagues were actively encouraged to plan ahead for the possibility of fixture postponements,” a Football Association spokesperson told the Guardian. “However, we understand that some leagues are experiencing challenges to complete their fixtures on time due to issues such as inclement weather, and we have taken steps where possible.”
Despite that attritional schedule, for Parrington, who admits a tight groin restricts him to pointing fresher teammates around, the manager Jordan Ive, and players such as Coles, a former Swindon and Chelsea trainee back playing after a period out of football, and club captain Gus Roetcisoender, an American SB Academy attender who doubles as kitman, this Sandhurst run has been the ride of their lives.
Team spirit is described by the club photographer Fiona Mair, whose son Paddy, 17, plays defensive midfielder as “pleasant, supportive, like a band of brothers … it’s a lot, a day at school, a match every evening, eat, bed, repeat.” A number of players work the late shift at the local Tesco. Most are taking A-levels or other further education qualifications. “We’ve asked everyone to be honest,” says Parrington. “If they are struggling, they can sit out a game. There’s more games to win.”
Harris, a 6ft 4in centre-back who turned 17 last weekend and scored that winner against Woodley, played all but 15 of Sandhurst’s 540 minutes since the previous Thursday. “I don’t score many,” he says. “The celebrations were good at the end. I usually find the day after the day after is when I seize up the most. And after games, sleeping can be hard.” Being a teenager, Harris complains that seven rather than 11 hours is not a sufficient night’s sleep.
An admiring Parrington says of Sandhurst’s tireless young bucks: “They’re so focused, so determined that tiredness hasn’t set in.” Two wins from four, with days off between, will do it for English football’s hardest-working team.
