Erith Town boss Adam Woodward has again questioned why his Play Off side have to play their final game of the season on Thursday rather than playing with the other three sides heading into the post-season at 3pm on Saturday. 

To be fair to all concerned, the Dockers have known since last August that because of the odd numbers in the SCEFL Premier this season, they would not have a fixture on Saturday April 27th. 

But with the final Play Off places still to be decided, Woodward was not happy when he spoke to KSN after Tuesday night’s defeat at Champions Deal Town. He told us, “Firstly congratulations to Deal for getting promoted!” 

“I thought we huffed and puffed first half – we didn’t defend properly when they got a half chance – I think we had two clear penalties we didn’t get first half and those decisions change games and that’s life; we have to dust ourselves off and go again on Thursday.” 

“Whoever has done the fixtures has not been kind to us, let’s be honest,” Woodward carried on, “we should really have played Tuesday and Saturday.”

“There’s no way we should be playing Tuesday/Thursday! I suggested this to the League two months ago and it was kicked back… there are games on Saturday that mean nothing to anyone, and it would have been ideal for us to play on Saturday!”

“It has not happened – it is very amateurish from the League if I am honest, but there’s nothing we can do about it, we have been dealt the cards, and we must deal with it!” 

Woodward made a series of changes at Deal and admitted there would be more changes on Thursday as he struggled to come to terms with the headache.

“We’re going to have to use the whole squad, whereas if it’s Tuesday Saturday you can make a couple of changes – now it’s likely to be seven or eight on Thursday… it’s not ideal, but there’s nothing we can do, and I just feel like we have been hard done by!” 

“Despite all that, it has been a really good season for us. We broke targets all season – the most points the club have ever won; winning the two Cups… we set a target at the start to maybe win a Cup and have a go at the Play Offs – we have won two and are in the Play Offs…” 

“Thursday is going to be another tough game as I fancied Snodland at the start of the year – it hasn’t quite gone for them, but I’m sure they will be full strength and look to get a win against us and we need to bounce back as we don’t want to go into next week on the back of two defeats!” 

“After Thursday, that’s our games done, and we could be above both Glebe and Corinthian and level on points with Faversham… we just don’t know where we are going to finish and is another reason why I believe that all the games should have been played on Saturday afternoon.”