Fixture caos for the Bannsiders

Coleraine are already counting the heavy cost of the festive freeze with the postponement of last weekend's lucrative home fixture against Linfield costing the Showgrounds outfit ten of thousands of pounds in lost revenue.

Chief Executive, John Mairs, confirmed that the club have lost in excess of 40,000.

"We had projected for income of 40,000 from those games and we are now five matches behind schedule," said John.

"We had a meeting with Linfield at the end of November to discuss arrangements and they advised they were expecting between 1,200 and 1,500 travelling fans on January 2," Mairs revealed. That would have been 12,000, absolute minimum.

"We would not anticipate that sort of crowd coming from Belfast for a midweek game. My preference would be that the league considers extending the third series of games by two Saturdays.

"That would give us the opportunity to recover some of the lost gate receipts from fixtures which were considered to be big money-spinners for the home clubs."

Now manager David Platt is facing a fixture headache with five league games to pencil into the schedule between now and the end of March.

In all, there are currently 20 outstanding matches to fit in somewhere and the IFA Premiership Committee met last night to try and sort out the mess.

There are 13 weeks until the top six and bottom six split from each other and play teams in their own half of the table in the final five fixtures of the season, by which time all teams are expected to have completed 33 league games.

Achieving that, however, is going to be a difficult task.

The option to extend the season is likely to be a last resort as that would throw up problems of its own. Not only would delaying the Irish Cup final by a week lead to a clash with the FA Cup final in England on Saturday, May 15, clubs who only pay their players during the season would then have to find sufficient cash to fund extra wages.

There is the possibility of matches being arranged on the Friday night before the Co-operative Insurance Cup final on March 27, but that won't help Coleraine if they are in the decider and, with the Bannsiders also still to play Bohemians in a Setanta Sports Cup game on February 27, that means a switch of their league game with Institute.

And Coleraine boss Platt is facing the very real possibility that this Saturday's Carling Premiership clash at Dungannon will also fall foul of the weather.

"With the weather that's forecast this week I can't see Saturday's game going ahead," Platt told Times Sport on Monday.

"It's been a very frustrating time for us all. I've been trying to keep the players ticking over in training, but even that has been problematic as trying to get a suitable venue has been a real nightmare.

"We desperately need to get back playing again. It's been nearly four weeks since we last played and I really hope that it doesn't disrupt our season.

"It's looking like our first game back could be the cup tie against Dundela, which won't be ideal, but they too have also been out of action since the middle of December."

Platt told Times Sport that he is hopeful of a resolution this week but said that extending the season could bring more problems.

"It's not just as simple as extending the season as teams, who are stretched financially, would then have to find more money to pay the cost of another two or three weeks of football," he said.

"Hopefully though things will be sorted this week, but again everything depends on the weather. We have 13 league games as well as all the cup games to fit in before the end of March. It's going to be a real headache."

Meanwhile, Platt confirmed that there could be some movement out of the club later this week.

"There may be someone leaving this week, but there's a number of issues still to be tied up," he said.

"In terms of transfers in I'm more concerned with getting us playing again as I feel we have a big enough squad here, although I have spoken with a few guys."

* The Bannsiders face a gruelling schedule over the next month after their five outstanding games were rearranged at Monday night's IPL committee meeting.

Irish FA Premiership chairman Jack Grundie said that a schedule had been agreed which would mean that the season would not have to be extended.

"That's even if this weekend's fixtures are affected," said Grundie.

"But if we have any problems beyond this weekend, then we would have to look at matters again."

Speaking after a meeting of Premiership clubs on Monday night, Grundie added:"Things may be complicated by Irish Cup replays but we are reasonably confident that we will be able to get back on schedule providing we have no further problems after this weekend.

"It was an excellent meeting. Clubs unanimously agreed with the fixture proposals and their approach was magnificent and totally co-operative."

If the cold weather continue as anticipated and impact on this weekend's fixtures, those matches will be played on Tuesday 23 March.

Re-arranged dates: Tuesday 12 January, Linfield v Coleraine; Tuesday 19 January, Coleraine v Portadown; Tuesday 26 January, Coleraine v Ballymena United; Tuesday 9 February, Coleraine v Linfield; Tuesday 23 February, Cliftonville v Coleraine.