THE Toolstation League are hoping they can secure a two-week extension to their season from the Football Association, as the league looks to alleviate their hefty fixture pile-up.

Adverse weather conditions have decimated the fixture list in recent months, with sides such as Melksham Town and Bradford Town yet to play a league game in February, and the Toolstation League board have applied for an extension, with the current last round of fixtures pencilled in for Saturday, April 26.

Chairman John Pool is expecting a decision to be made by the FA on March 1 and is keen to avoid the league’s amateur players facing a punishing travel schedule in the final few weeks of the season.

“The application went in three weeks ago and I think that the FA were initially quite reluctant to grant it to some leagues and not to others, so it looks as though they’ll be trying to offer an everyone an extension,” said Pool.

“We want to try and limit the travelling that teams are going to have to do because it’s not fair to ask them to play so many games in such a short space of time at the end of the season.

“Gone are the days where players could take time off work easily and you can’t ask them to do it twice a week.

“We’ve got Larkhall Athletic and Hallen who are still in the FA Vase and if they win or draw their next games (this weekend), then that pushes things back again – we want them to go as far as they can.

“We’ve also still got outstanding Les Phillips Cup ties. We haven’t had too many issues with individual clubs yet but if the weather continues, then we’ll have a serious problem.

“I’ve not known there to be a two-week extension before but that would also give us a Bank Holiday weekend to fit games in. We’re hoping that we get it.”

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