The Northern League ?

[222gers]

Only four clubs that we play next season could be considered local - Reading, Watford, Wall and Luton.
Given the Rangers' legendary collapses against northern teams away, especially midweek in the cold and rain, it doesn't auger well.
Lots of long distance travelling for our doughty away support too.

[Montag]

Looks a very grim league for sure.

[old pauline]

It's a very big factor and one that needs to be thought about and planned for carefully. Warbs addressed it quite well with his 'the games come thick and fast, we've got 14 games in 7 weeks, the players need to rest etc.' patter and it was something that we improved on under his reign. There will be several breaks up until and during the World Cup so that will help but, yes you are right, Beale is going to have to make sure they are tucked up on Monday nights and hardened up for the M1 and a routine of wind and rain and pies and Brown ale.

[UxbridgeR]

It's a very big factor and one that needs to be thought about and planned for carefully. Warbs addressed it quite well with his 'the games come thick and fast, we've got 14 games in 7 weeks, the players need to rest etc.' patter and it was something that we improved on under his reign. There will be several breaks up until and during the World Cup so that will help but, yes you are right, Beale is going to have to make sure they are tucked up on Monday nights and hardened up for the M1 and a routine of wind and rain and pies and Brown ale.

Aren't there fewer breaks as a result of the World Cup ? There's only one international break that I can see, and we have 21 league games scheduled before the four week hard stop in early November, versus the 17 we had played at the same point last year. That's excluding any kind of Cup run we might have.

[old pauline]

Sorry, my mistake. Thought there'd be international friendly weekends in the run-up to the WC Finals but maybe those are going to be midweek, one or two weeks before. I still think we need to have a bigger and more durable squad to deal with the plethora of games; I don't want a repeat of last year when we ran out of goalkeepers and were relying on two aged strikers who couldn't manage 90 minute games.