LET US PLAY IF WE WANT

AFC FYLDE chairman David Haythornthwaite believes introducing a waiver form to exonerate officials when both clubs are happy to play a game in doubt, will see fewer matches postponed.

- Matt Badcock

The Coasters chief insists it's time for a debate to come up with "pragmatic and common sense" solutions.

Fylde's crunch National League clash at Aldershot Town was called off last weekend because of a waterlogged pitch, meaning the near £5,000 forked out on hotel and travel costs had gone to waste.

But Hay thornthwaite fears "wokeness" means officials are erring on the side of caution because of potential repercussions if a player gets injured and he wants that changed in situations when both teams agree the match should be played.

"Hopefully the tide is turning on wokeness and we can highlight this issue which, in my mind, is a major one that needs to be resolved," Haythornthwaite told The NLP.

"Sometimes one of the teams might want to play and the other doesn't want and then, ultimately, you have no option (to go with the referee's decision) - as much as you may disagree with the referee. I fully accept that.