Fleetwood Town’s FA Trophy game at Chester City scheduled for this Saturday has been brought forward 24 hours following police advice.
The kick-off will now be 7:45pm on Friday, 11th December at the Deva Stadium.
The FA has agreed to a request from Cheshire Constabulary asking that the tie is switched on the grounds of safety. Chester City’s recent Blue Square Premier home game against Eastbourne Borough was abandoned after fans protested about the way the troubled club was being run.
Fleetwood chief executive Steve Curwood was adamant the tie should go ahead as scheduled this Saturday at 3pm.
“The local police have insisted that the game be moved to Friday night. Due to intelligence they have received, and their safety concerns, they have decided to police the match.
“As Wrexham are also at home this Saturday, they said insufficient resources prevented both games going ahead on the same day. I also understand Wrexham and Chester share stewards and playing at the same time would place a strain on those resources as well.
“Cheshire Constabulary’s concerns centred mainly on our fixture and thus we were asked if we would consider moving the game. We flatly refused to play on any other day, and even offered to switch the tie. The FA were happy to consider switching to Highbury but Chester refused to give up home advantage.
“The police were forced to correspond directly with the FA, who have this morning informed us that they have little option to follow the police request.
“As a club, we are very annoyed at this major inconvenience to both our supporters and the club in general. Not least as this will cost the club financially, as we anticipate a lower crowd than usual and, as such, our share in gate receipts will be affected.”
“Refusing to play a game is simply not how we operate, but if we did refuse to play on Friday, we would be kicked out of the competition, which is obviously not an option,” Curwood added.
In a communication to Fleetwood Town, the FA stated: “Whilst this decision causes problems for Fleetwood Town for the players and supporters, in situations where we receive a request from the Police to switch a match date for safety considerations then it is very difficult for the FA to oppose the views of the Police when they provide relevant details to support the request.“
