IT’S BEEN another frustrating week at Yockings Park with no league fixture at the weekend.

Alsager Town’s involvement in the FA Vase meant the league game had to be postponed with the cup competition taking preference.

The Reds will have up to FIVE games in hand on some of the other teams in the North West Counties First Division, and moved quickly to arrange a friendly for Monday night against Morecambe’s development squad (match report on Page 39).

Saturday’s opponents are Sandbach United who, like Alport, made it to the play-off semi-finals last season.

They will have played four matches since the Reds’ last fixture against Cheadle, and joint manager Luke Goddard is baffled why his side aren’t playing midweek matches.

He said: “At the same stage of last season we had played seven midweek games but this season we’ve had just two.

“There’s no rhyme nor reason why that should be and it’s incredibly frustrating.

“We have one of, if not THE, best facilities the league has to offer and yet we haven’t had a single league game at home on a Monday night.

“All you ask is that you get a fair crack of the whip but how can there be virtually a full league programme this week and we’re not involved again?

“It’s ridiculous because lads want to be playing and it’s difficult going into games without having built up some momentum.

“We’re not going to whine and moan and you have to be discreet about the way you voice your disappointments.

“There have been a few tweets into the Counties so they are aware of our concerns. I don’t know whether that will make a difference but this is like Groundhog Day where we’re going to have a heavy schedule at the back end of the season.

“The worst of the wintry weather is still to come so we’re bound to have the odd game off here and there. I just hope we can have a sequence of games staged so we can rack up some points and get some confidence.”

Alport will slip out of the top six for the first time this season if either Cammell Laird or AFC Blackpool win midweek away games, and if Sandbach manage a win at Litherland, they will start Saturday’s match with a five-point advantage.

It’s a mustn’t lose game for Whitchurch, who will have four games in hand over a United side that only last week recorded a 2-1 win at Tranmere Rovers in a Cheshire Senior Cup tie at Prenton Park.

And Sandbach will be right up for the match having seen last season’s player of the year, Chris Jackson, depart for Yockings Park in the summer.

Goddard said: “We’ll show them respect because they’ve earned it but hopefully we’ll have one or two new faces in to boost our firepower, because it’s the forward areas where we’ve been lacking recently.

“I don’t think a point would be disastrous and if we do lose the game then we’ll have another look at things, but the message to the players will be we want to win the match.”

Summer capture Ben Mills has had an MRI scan and awaits the results.

The game at the Sandbach Community Centre kicks off at 3pm and Alport are asking for as many supporters as possible to make the 40-minute journey into Cheshire.

n Whitchurch Alport have confirmed the date for their Shropshire Premier Cup quarter-final against Shawbury United.

The game will take place at Yockings on Monday, December 4.