Chris Davies laments ‘not ideal’ situation and highlights ‘two decisions I’m pleased I made’
Chris Davies has lamented the scheduling of Birmingham City’s first festive fixture at Crawley Town, admitting it gives their promotion rivals an advantage.
Blues will make the six-hour round trip to Sussex to play Crawley at 8pm on Monday – 67 hours before their Boxing Day bout with Burton Albion kicks off at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park. Top-of-the-table Wycombe, meanwhile, played Bolton on Friday night and Wrexham landed a 12:30 start on Saturday at Bristol Rovers.
Whilst Wycombe face five fixtures in 16 days over Christmas and New Year, Blues have five games in 13 days up to January 4. The busiest time on the football calendar will be even busier for Blues.
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“It gives them a three-day advantage and it’s not ideal for us, and I’m sure they would feel the same if they had a game on a Monday night at eight o’clock down there,” said Blues manager Davies. “It’s more preparation time for the opposition, or our rivals if you like, but at the end of the day you need to play the games anyway. We’re looking forward to it because Crawley are a team that like to play so it’s a good opportunity for us.”
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The congested schedule leaves little time for training. Blues’ players will report to their base in Henley-in-Arden but the majority of their work will be centred around recovery between games.
Davies explained “It’s game, two days, game, two days, game, two days, so within that we need to schedule a day off or two to give the players rest and time at home. We’ll map that all out but as it stands, we are in after the games to recover and prepare for the next one.”
Working on Christmas Day is the norm for most managers and footballers. Davies added: “My family are used to it and if you’re in, it’s normally the morning to do your work and then you go home.”
Davies insisted on building a big squad for the winter and will have to rotate his team over this period. Blues face another home game against Blackpool on December 29, whom they defeated in the FA Cup recently, before away days at Stockport and Wigan in the New Year.
The likes of Ethan Laird, Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Marc Leonard, Luke Harris and Lyndon Dykes are more than capable of stepping in when Davies needs them to. Davies made wholesale changes for recent cup clashes with Blackpool and Exeter and saw his team notch up two confidence-boosting victories.
He commented: “The Blackpool game was a good example because we made 10 changes. Bar the midfield, Blackpool had pretty much their full strength team out for that game and we competed well and won on the day. That allowed me to do it again at Exeter.
“Wholesale changes for a league game can be difficult to do, but it gave me good encouragement and it gave fitness and exposure for players that needed it. They are two decisions I’m pleased I made in hindsight because it has set us up well. A few players have minutes under their belts and if they are called upon now, which they probably will be, they are going to be ready.”
