You do want to play, don’t you?

How good was it to get back out there on Tuesday night?

Yes it was the much derided Pizza Cup, and yes it was a much changed Oldham side but to see us back out there, nearly three weeks since we last stepped out was good to see.

Fair play to the over 500 hardy souls travelling over to Ice Station Zebra on a freezing cold January evening. At least they were rewarded for their efforts.

I imagine we may have had even more there in the days of the competition being strictly for League One/League Two clubs.

The EFL really have done such a disservice to a great competition for lower league clubs.

Yes it’ll be brilliant for Latics if we reach Wembley in terms of finances and well Wembley.

But there’ll always be frustration that the EFL allowed or rather invited under 21 sides in to a competition that was exclusively for those lower league clubs who may never have had the chance to dream of a day out at Wembley previously.

Speaking of which Arsenal U21s or Chelsea U21s doesn’t quite have the same appeal. Nonetheless it’s an opportunity to progress.

Sadly it’s yet another match to fit in to a ridiculously packed fixture list as it is, even more if we manage to beat Blackburn on Saturday.

Leam Richardson spoke of his frustration that neither Fleetwood or Accrington were willing to play this coming Tuesday the 11th January.

Which is utterly bizarre, it’ll be over two weeks at that point that we should have played both originally so their players hit by Covid should have required sufficiently by then.

As Leam quite rightly pointed out last season we were told we had to play on the first date available, why that should now be different is beyond my comprehension.

It’s going to be a tricky few months, trying to fit in football matches we’re in great form at the minute and one has to hope the extended break over Christmas has been more help than hindrance.

But if clubs are refusing to play us in our few free available dates left I’m unsure what it says for the integrity of the competition.

Sean Livesey

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PIE AT NIGHT PODCAST
We promise you that it’s easier to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t have to rely on us to remind you when a new episode comes out.

Apple sorts can find it on iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pie-at-night-podcast/id1097853442?mt=2

If you prefer a different podcast app then just search for “The Pie at Night Podcast”.

You can also find us on Stitcher, here – http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-pie-at-night-pocast/the-pie-at-night-podcast

If you’re that way out, you can find and subscribe to our RSS feed here – http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepieatnight

And if you just want to take pot luck then you can find all our episodes on our Soundcloud page