League Two fixture list is ridiculous - and will stretch Crawley

John Yems watches the Stevenage game from the stand on Tuesday / Picture: UK Sports Images - Jamie Evans

The postponement of last Saturday’s trip to Carlisle because of a frozen pitch means the Reds still have 20 matches to play - in 11 weeks.

With the season scheduled to end on May 8, there are 12 Saturdays and 11 midweek dates on which they can play.

That leaves Yems’ men with little room for manoeuvre – even if there are no more matches postponed.

The Carlisle trip has now been rearranged for Tuesday, March 30 – but as that’s the week leading up to Easter it means Crawley will play four games in ten days, also including a visit to Scunthorpe on Good Friday, April 2.

In an ordinary season, postponements can be a minor inconvenience. But with this campaign starting a month later and Covid-19 forcing more games than usual to be put off, this season’s pile-up is challenging for every League Two side.

Crawley lost 1-0 at home to Stevengage on Tuesday night and are at home again on Saturday, when bottom-half side Colchester visit. The congestion concerns Yems, although he points out Crawley aren’t the only ones suffering.

Yems, who is serving a two-match touchline ban after admitting an FA charge concerning improper conduct, said of the fixture list: “It’s the same for everybody, it’s ridiculous but it’s got to be done.

“There’s no excuses – we can’t do anything else but play them, can we? It’s ridiculous but there you go, it’s the same for everybody so let’s just make sure we’re all right.”

It’s already been a challenging season physically for pro footballers and Yems believes the hectic fixture list will stretch his squad. “Of course it will stretch our squad. It will stretch any squad,” he added. “We’ve done well, as I’ve said all along, to get through a season like we’ve had.

“Any club’s first thoughts are survival, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’ve had a decent season up until now, people keep telling me.”

Yems wants the squad to focus on rediscovering the consistent form they were in before the Leeds Cup tie.

“We’ve just got to get back to our consistency, doing what we were doing. We approach every game the same, and we look to win every game. We’ve got to make sure we keep turning up, that’s what we’ve got to do,” he said.

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