Bridgwater Town withdraw Under-18s from Somerset Youth League (From This is The West Country)

Bridgwater Town withdraw Under-18s from Somerset Youth League

3:10pm Monday 14th January 2013 in Sport

BRIDGWATER Town have withdrawn their under-18s side from the Somerset Floodlight Youth League with immediate effect.

Bosses at the club say the decision has not been taken lightly and that it has been forced upon them due to fixture congestion and the state of the Fairfax Park pitch.

A spokesman said: “The recent spell of wet weather has been a major factor in the postponement of several of our first and reserve team home games which have all been rearranged for midweek – with several replacing scheduled Under- 18 team games.

“With further bad weather expected over the next few weeks, more games could be at risk.

“These rearrangements, coupled with other midweek games we are contracted to host, has meant that finding suitable dates to rearrange under-18 team fixtures has become increasingly difficult, so the decision to withdraw the team has sadly been forced upon us.”

The club said they hoped that people understood the situation and placed on record their thanks to the team manager Sam Reilly.

Some of the team members have vented their anger at the decision on the team’s Facebook group.

But first team joint boss Dave Pople said he hopes some of the youngsters do not get despondent with the news.

He added: “It is a shame the bulk of their games is at a part of the season that is heavily congested with fixtures.

“They are not knocking it on the head altogether – it is just for this year – and the players who are good enough are still involved in the reserves and first team squad anyway.

“They should not be despondent because a lot of them are involved in college football so they still have that arm between the club and college.”