Having taken time off work and got all the way to Fylde I would have been extremely annoyed if the game had been called off. I would have approached Fylde from a different direction to our team bus, didn't have any travel issues getting there (except for finding the ground which wasn't signposted - good job the floodlights were on) and was in the ground about an hour before the scheduled kick-off time. Overhearing a conversation between the Fylde manager and one of their club officials before our team bus had arrived, the Fylde manager actually wanted the game called off! He was saying if Boston were more than half an hour late then he wanted the game postponed because it wasn't fair on the home side and their preparation, blah blah blah. On reflection I think it affected the away side's preparation more!
Let's be honest, the Conference fixture computer / administrators must take some responsibility for what happened yesterday. At the start of the season they know which Saturdays are FA Cup and FA Trophy round dates, and yet they still produce league fixtures pairing sides from opposite sides of the country on those dates. It only needs one of the teams to progress therefore and suddenly you've got a logistical nightmare of an away team and its supporters having to travel the full width of the country on a Tuesday night. I know a lot of the regular Boston away support, and there were a lot of people not at AFC Fylde last night who I would normally expect to see; therefore Fylde also take lower gate receipts as a result. (Similarly didn't Boston lose out last season through the visit of Stockport being rescheduled for midweek)? The answer is surely to try and schedule the more local league fixtures on the FA Round Dates. If we had to travel to a Gainsborough, Ferriby, Leamington, Tamworth, Harrogate, etc., for a 7:45 on a Tuesday night then it'd be so much simpler than trying to get to AFC Fylde?
