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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Chris Watson

Notts County boss hits back at 'laughable' Dover claims

Ian Burchnall has hit back at claims made by the Dover Athletic chairman over the postponement of Tuesday's match with Notts County.

The game was called off five hours before kick-off despite passing a pitch inspection at lunchtime, with fans already en route to the south coast.

It is the second time the National League clash has been postponed after the first game, scheduled for January 8, was called off due to heavy rain two hours before kick-off.

Dover chairman Jim Parmenter has claimed the National League postponed this latest fixture, blaming "undue pressure from Notts County on the authorities" and branding the decision "an absolute disgrace".

Notts explained Tuesday's decision, which was made at 2.15pm, was taken by the match official in lieu of the weather forecast and based on reports of the lunchtime inspection.

Nottinghamshire Live has been told by sources close to the League that they were not involved in the decision to call the game off other than to ask the officials to take ownership of the situation.



However, Parmenter insists it was the National League who made the call for the game to be postponed and vowed to make a formal complaint.

Notts issued a statement saying they "vehemently reject" the claims and head coach Burchnall said: "It's kind of laughable to suggest that we would want the game not played, or that there was any pressure from our end.

"The only thing we want is clarity of information to give to our fans, especially as they are travelling long, long distances to support the team, and the better information we can get, the better prepared we can be.

"That's it. So we just want that communication.

"There's not been a single game that has been called off that we were not ready to play.

"Every one of those games, we were fit, ready and raring to go.

"We were desperate for the game to be on, and desperately disappointed that it wasn't.

"We communicate things our way, we put a statement out, and if their chairman wants to come out and talk, that's his prerogative. I don't pay too much attention, really. I just focus on the next game, which is Eastleigh."

Burchnall added: "(It was) very frustrating, to be down there. A lot goes into every game and that's now five cancellations that we've had since December 21, I think.

"So it's really frustrating, because you put a lot of effort into the preparation, and the games, but obviously it doesn't come. So we fall a little bit behind now in terms of fixtures played.

"But again, it's things that are outside of our control, so we just have to try to get back all the things that we can control, and work really hard at that."



Notts are now facing a fixture pile-up as they look to challenge for promotion, as well as FA Trophy glory.

"I think we have to train well, I think we have to train hard, and we have been," said Burchnall. "The players are putting it in on the training pitch to make themselves prepared. It's never easy when you have periods without a game. We saw that when we came back after a two-week league break with the Wealdstone game - where we were so rusty in the first half.

"So we really have to push the training to make sure the players are ready, and physically ready to cope with Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday.

"But the squad is in good shape. We've rotated a lot for games against very good teams in the trophy, and we've demonstrated the strength of the squad, and I think that's going to be more important now, as we may end up with three games in six days at some point.

"We're going to need to rely on the squad to rotate and players coming in performing. I'm confident they can do that, as they've shown that in moments in the Trophy and in other games."

Notts are back in action on Saturday (3pm) when they take on Eastleigh at Meadow Lane.

Asked about the latest team news, Burchnall said: "As it has been. Just Jim O'Brien that is out at the moment. Everybody else is fit and well."

The Magpies' FA Trophy quarter-final at home to Wrexham will be played on Friday, March 11 (7.45pm kick-off) - as Nottingham Forest are in action at home on the Saturday.

As a result, Notts' league trip to Stockport County - originally scheduled for that weekend - has been moved back to Tuesday, March 15 (7.45pm kick-off).

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