Early fixture congestion fears for Skelmersdale United manager Tommy Lawson

Sep 20 2012 by Philip Kirkbride, Skelmersdale Advertiser

TOMMY LAWSON admits to being concerned about the prospect of Skelmersdale United having to play catch-up in the league.

Skem travel to Tadcaster Albion on Saturday for an FA Cup second qualifying round tie, having secured their passage into the next round of the FA Trophy last weekend with victory over Salford.

Lawson’s men have a 100% record this season but only four of those wins have come in the Evo-Stik First Division North and the manager is worried that once their various cup campaigns come to an end, Skem could find themselves with a fixture backlog.

The United boss says the financial rewards of extended stays in the cups are welcome but makes no secret that promotion remains their priority.

“But my concern at the moment is that we have only played four league games,” he said.

“Our next game is Tadcaster on Saturday and providing ourselves and Warrington don’t draw our respective Cup ties, then we face them on Tuesday.

“The following weekend it’s Burscough in the FA Trophy and the following Tuesday is our Liverpool Senior Cup game.

“So we are looking at about one game in six being a league fixture.

“You can quickly lose ground. We lost the Burscough fixture when they played Padiham because of the weather and lost the Salford game because of the FA Cup.

“We are in danger of getting deep into the season having only played a spoonful of league games. You can’t have these little cup runs and still stay in touch in the league.

“The finances on offer are of course a massive help to us but we make no secret that the priority is the league.

“It might not be us, but sides will end up with four games in eight days.

“Our secretary is already telling me that we are facing a run of Saturday-Tuesday games and as we move towards winter, games will get taken off us because of the weather.”

But Lawson, whose side will not compete in the Lancashire Trophy this season, insists he would never enter a cup tie not wanting to win.

Accordingly, the Skem boss took the time to run the rule over Tadcaster and is able to offer a first-hand assessment to his squad.

“I’ve been down to watch Tadcaster and it was interesting,” he said.

“As you might expect, they are a big, strong and physical side and they have an experienced manager in Paul Marshall. They have the advantage over us physically but we have more ability on the ball and so our tactics must be to keep the ball on the floor.”