I think it's ridiculous that I've got to ask players who are working all week to play eight games this month, says Hythe Town boss Steven Watt

HYTHE TOWN manager Steven Watt says he is concerned with his side’s fixture congestion this month.

The Cannons kicked-off their eight-match January with a 1-0 victory at bottom-of-the-table side Faversham Town yesterday.

Hythe Town climbed up three places into 12^th in the Isthmian League South East Division table, having picked up 23 points from their 17 league games.

They claimed the points courtesy of a flicked finish from centre-half Jason Fregene, his third goal of the season, following a well-worked set-piece routine.

Faversham Town remain rooted to the foot of the table on eight points from their 19 games and Sammy Moore is the club’s third management team of the season at Salters Lane.

Corinthian are five points clear following their 3-0 home win over Sittingbourne yesterday, closing the gap on the Brickies to four points.

Hythe Town welcome Michael Golding’s Corinthian to Reachfields Stadium on Saturday (7 January, 14:00).

The Isthmian League arrange games within six weeks of any postponement and Watt is concerned with playing eight games this month.

“It’s a busy month for us, we’ve got eight games this month, which I think is incredible,” said Watt.

“I don’t know how the league insist games have to be played within six weeks (of the original fixture), when we get this complete fixture congestion.

“The pitches will get cut up, (we can suffer) injuries to players.  You think common sense would prevail. If two sides can agree a date, not four months down the line, but a couple of weeks after the deadline, you’d think that would be acceptable.

“They talk about the top level and hear about people are overplaying in the Premier League and you come down here and I think it's ridiculous that I've got to ask players' who are working all day to play eight games this month!

“We’ve played 16 games by Boxing Day and we’ve got to play 50% of what we’ve done in one month – it needs looking at.  If there’s dates that the two teams are happy with that’s beyond the deadline, I don’t see why it can’t be agreed?”

Watt has limited resources to him at Reachfields Stadium and is doing an excellent job to guide the club to midtable.

When asked about his current squad, Watt replied: “It was great to have Harry Miller back on the pitch because he’s been out for six weeks so we couldn’t use him.

“Everyone else is healthy at the moment, which is good. It’s something that we have to maintain because if we pick up a few injuries we haven’t got the squad size and depth the likes of Faversham and Ramsgate and teams like that have.

“We are what we are, it’s really important for us to keep everyone fit.  If we can keep everyone fit we can match and give anyone in this league a game, so we’ve got to try our hardest to keep everyone fit.”

Visit Hythe Town’s website:  www.hythetownfc.co.uk

Hythe Town  v  Corinthian
Isthmian League South East Division
Saturday 7 December 2022
Kick Off 2:00pm
at Reachfields Stadium, Fort Road, Hythe, Kent CT21 6JS