Harvey grumbling about backlog

The Daily Telegraph has a report about Morecambe and its fixture backlog. It should be remembered that Hereford also have a backlog and are still in the FA Trophy.

Morecambe, who have spent the past week complaining at their fixture backlog in the Nationwide Conference, may yet come to be grateful for last week's FA Trophy exit.

The 12th placed Morecambe, who are aiming to improve on their run to the play-off semi-finals two years ago, have played three games less than some of the teams above them. However, it could have been worse. But for the Trophy defeat at Burton, Morecambe would have had to postpone two further fixtures and could have been five games behind the likes of Crawley and Aldershot, who are in joint second-place.

That is the prospect facing Hereford, Morecambe's hosts tomorrow, who still remember their own play-off agony last year and could yet regret their continued involvement in the Trophy. Graham Turner's team beat Eastwood in their midweek replay to earn a home quarter-final with Hucknall, but Jim Harvey, Morecambe's manager, was probably not among those casting envious eyes in Hereford's direction.

"It's not right to be four league games behind at this stage of the season," he said before Morecambe's game at Stevenage on Tuesday. "They knew if they won that they'd go up to second, whereas we were going for 12th place."

Although Harvey was slightly happier after his team's 1-0 win, he was still grumbling. "If we had played the same number of games we would be in the top five," he said. "We are going to have to do it the hard way."

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