[Devongone]

Matt I agree totally about re-scheduling the FA Trophy. It isn't, or shouldn't be, a tin pot trophy. It is the major trophy available in non-league football, which accounts for most of the football played in this country. The excrescence is the 92 clubs of the Football League. Non-league down to junior football is the heartbeat of the game. The Premier League and EFL labour under the misapprehension that they are the game itself and a supine old-man-driven FA confirms their myopia. That's why we develop laws of the game that are completely impractical to interpret without (and often with) television replays. The laws of the game should be laws ordinary Saturday and Sunday league players and referees can function under, not laws designed to mollify cry-baby pros blubbing it just isn't fair.

We were by quite a distance the best team still in the FA trophy. What we did was the equivalent of Pep Guardiola fielding his youth team when drawn away to a Championship side in the FA Cup.

We fielded a side with zero experience in order that it would lose and that is why it was against everything sport should be about.

Had we for instance fielded six youth players and the five who were likely to be substitutes against Alty I wouldn't have argued. That game would have helped both the experienced and inexperienced parts of the team. It would have provided a close game that we might have won, with the chance of a trophy or a final appearance hoving into view. That would have been sport and would have had zero impact on our performance on Tuesday. And the blame for our not fielding our strongest team would clearly have lodged with the fixture list.

After Tuesday we are 12 points clear at the top with a game in hand. If we continue to accumulate points at our current rate we are looking at a record 115 points for the season. If Bromley and Barnet continue at their current rate they will get 92, which in itself is excellent. To fail to win our league we would need to lose at least 8 of the 19 games we have still to play, having only lost 3 out 27 so far. Even then, if we won 9 drew 2 and lost 8, we'd still be on 97 points, a potential cushion between us and our rivals.

If extreme caution is indeed our policy in order to return to the EFL at all costs, how do you explain our policy of not fielding a substitute goalkeeper in any of our games (even though we certainly have the best substitute goalkeeper in our league and possibly EFL 2)? Why doesn't safety first kick in there? What if Tyrer breaks a couple of fingers in the first minute? We'd be almost bound to lose, which wouldn't be the case if we'd just picked up a couple of knocks in a Saturday Trophy game.

[spireitematt]

I agree it's not a tin pot trophy. The FA trophy is the equivalent of the non-league FA Cup and the FA Vase is a trophy for the smaller non-league teams who are just amateur status. I expected us to field a team against Welling like we did against Southport with a mixture of first team fringe players and youth. Playing the youth team gave them experience and also a chance to test themselves against better opposition.

[Devongone]

I really don't think we gave a toss about them testing themselves Matt. They were out there to do their best, but NOT to succeed.

They'd have learned far more playing alongside a few seasoned pros.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Sorry guys but it is a tin pot trophy. Just look at the attendances in the early rounds. Nobody is interested until the semis or the final. Why do they insist on holding the final at Wembley? A few thousand fans rattling around in the national stadium, what a waste.

It shouldn't take priority over league games. That's just crazy. If some teams don't want to compete in it then so what? Let the ones that do have their glory days. I'm sure our youth team enjoyed the experience.

If we had played our first team and suffered any bad injuries, you'd be complaining that we shouldn't have risked playing them.

Whilst were on the subject if night follows day why did you not complain about our team selection for that great Trophy - the Derbyshire Cup? At least we turn up which is more than Derby do.

[SaltergateBorn]

To be fair, Dancing, I think there`s a slight difference between a county competition and a national competition.

It`s one of those where my head disagrees with my heart. My head says it makes sense not to risk injuries to key players in a competition that is not a priority and that offers little financial reward; my heart says that, being a national cup competition, we should pay it due respect and we haven`t really done that for the last few year. It`s the idea of putting out an entire team of youth players that irritates me - although this time DW in his interview beforehand at least gave fair warning of what they intended to do, unlike Coalville last season. I think if we played a few senior players who aren`t playing a full 90 minutes regularly and blooded some of the youngsters at the same time - as we did against Southport - I might find it more palatable. As it is, it rather leaves a slightly unpleasant taste in the mouth for me.

[Devongone]

Dancing, we are one of the clubs turning the FA Trophy into something tin pot, just as some Premier League clubs disrespect cup competitions in which they might do rather well if they actually tried. Of course attendances are low, who wants to pay to see our youth team getting beat, or Solihull fielding nine reserves against a struggling club?

Clubs lower down the pyramid spend a lot of time berating the Premier League for not allowing its vast wealth to rejuvenate football as a whole, but we are hardly in a position to complain when we enter the Derbyshire Senior Cup and refuse the opportunity to spice up the competition with one or two of our better players. Derbyshire's clubs would love it and their fans would see it as a highlight. Instead we say, "Here see if you can beat our junior team" and then we have the cheek to fly the Derbyshire flag.

Of course we have to determine our priorities. Of course The National League would be far more sensible cut down to 20 clubs only. Of course the FA ought to communicate sensibly over fixtures to maintain the value of its own competition. BUT sportsmen have a responsibility to uphold the values of sport for future generations, and we are choosing to breed selfishness and winning is all that matters instead.

Like Salts I felt that our Welling game was unpalatable. I had very little interest in how we fared against Alty on the Tuesday ....... If we leave non league after this season I'd have liked us to be fondly remembered, but I guarantee only our ground will be missed.

[spireitematt]

Sorry guys but it is a tin pot trophy. Just look at the attendances in the early rounds. Nobody is interested until the semis or the final. Why do they insist on holding the final at Wembley? A few thousand fans rattling around in the national stadium, what a waste.

Because they do a double header where they play the FA Trophy and FA Vase final on the same day.

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I would have liked a cup run in the FA Trophy but you have to prioritise what's more important a cup competition where you play more games to a backdated fixture list and get more injuries or suspensions or focus on the league and getting back into the Football League. We are 11pts clear at the top of the league and we need to keep a good gap between ourselves and Bromley. What with the weather and also the fact we are going to be playing Tuesday/Saturday for a bit is going to test the squad and players and at some point we are going to drop points at home or away and we need squad rotation and to keep the players fresh.

If I was the manager for the game against Welling, I would have used a mixture of youth players and the players who are in need of some minutes and first team football, I did find it odd we didn't put Boot or Tyrer in net for the game.

[Devongone]

The irony is Matt that Chadwick probably benefitted more from that game than the rest because he played well and came out and dealt with crosses, but I agree, in our situation we might have played some experienced players alongside our youngsters. That might well have won us the game.

Do you really think a couple of knocks is about to jeopardise our chances of winning the league? We would have to lose EIGHT more matches even to put ourselves in range of Bromley or Barnet ..... and even then they would have to improve. Only Chesterfield or Newcastle United could throw away such a lead.

The structure of the National League is bizarre. 24 teams in the top division, 24 in each of the two below. Wouldn't you think 20 in each of the divisions might be marginally more sensible? As a result the fixture list is a monumental grind which encourages the thinking that has prevented us attempting ever to compete properly in the FA Trophy. What would happen to the twelve teams my plan takes out? Well you'd only need to add another 8 and you'd be able to divide up a bigger National League into three more sensibly regionalised divisions - maybe Gloucester might not have to be in the North then!!!

The size of our squad and its ability to cope with a tight fixture list has been determined by loaning players out who were good enough to compete for places and transferring another player who showed plenty of promise. The real problem, as you've pointed out Matt, is that above a certain size our squad will contain players to whom we cannot give games, because we lack any B team set-up ..... even if we can afford the wage bill.

[Devongone]

Very noticeable that very few National League teams were playing in midweek this week. Why was it necessary to pile in with midweek league fixtures days after the FA Trophy games? These things are done seemingly without any consideration for the clubs themselves, yet when they react by fielding much-weakened teams they are left to look like the only bad guys on the block.

Every year has 52 weeks. 12 weeks at least of that is close season every single year. Should it be beyond the wit of man to arrange leagues and fixtures with an eye to these facts? Why have leagues with 46 games when we know they cannot help but trigger the process of congestion? Why whine about the effect on devalued cup competitions when you know very well that the amount of games scheduled exceeds the time naturally available?