Dee boss blasts fixtures schedule
Welsh woe at chaos
Published:
BANKS O’ DEE boss Garry Welsh has blasted the scheduling conflict that has forced his side to play two games just 24 hours apart.
Junior champions Dee were beaten 3-0 in a Superleague clash at Stonehaven last night and now face Keith in the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup tonight.
The Spain Park club had to cope with a similar situation last season, when they beat Lads Club 4-1 and then lost 5-3 to Deveronvale in the cup the following night.
Welsh is disappointed one of this week’s matches could not have been moved to give his squad more recuperation time.
As a result, the Dee manager conceded he will have to field a weakened team at Keith.
He said: “Unfortunately we had the same situation last year and neither association are prepared to move the games.
“We want to play in the Aberdeenshire Cup, but having two games in 24 hours is pretty ridiculous.
“Obviously our priority has to be our junior league game, so the team that goes out on Wednesday night will be a weakened side.
“We are playing four games in seven days and with a squad of 17 or 18 players, that is a huge ask.
“It is a difficult situation we are in, but I’d like to think that an administrator somewhere could do something about it.
“My hands are tied and I am left with probably half a dozen under-19 players in there on Wednesday night, which takes away a little bit of the reality of the game.”
Keith goalkeeper Andy Shearer hopes his side can take the first step towards a cup success that would help quell the disappointment of ending last season without any silverware
The Scotland semi-pro international said: “We didn’t win anything last year so it would be good to win a trophy early on this season.
“We are usually there or thereabouts in the league and cups so it would be nice to get back to winning ways.
“There haven’t been many seasons recently where we haven’t won something, so last year was a bit of a downer.”
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