Mid-Season Break?

Dear Talking Bull,

One topic of conversation at this time of year is the feasibility of a mid-season break. There are of course many reasons to support a break, the obvious one being the weather, but being realistic, how long would the break have to be?

If for instance, we had a complete break in January what happens if we have a mild January and a frozen February? Therefore in my opinion, for a mid winter break to work it would have to run from mid-December to the middle of March, almost as long as the close season!

Personally, I believe the best solution would be a compromise; no official break but less games scheduled for the coldest months. Apart from Boxing Day and FA Cup replays during the coldest months football would be played on Saturday's only. The absence of midweek games would give the players more time to recover from playing on heavy or hard pitches and also give the groundsman more time to prepare the playing surface properly.

One Saturday in early March and one in early April would be left free for playing the games which were cancelled during the harshest weather and the season would be extended for a fortnight to compensate. All midweek League, Carling Cup and Johnstones Paint Trophy matches would be scheduled to be played before mid-December, or after early March when there is less chance of postponements.

I believe the above suggestions would be an ideal compromise as more games would be played on their scheduled dates and the two 'catch-up' Saturdays would help avoid fixture congestion. Also, the close season would be a little shorter - yippee!!

In conclusion, I believe that it makes sense to play less football during mid-winter but I don't believe that it's feasible to stop it altogether.

Bulls boss Graham Turner has spoken about this to the Hereford Times.

He said: "I suppose that age-old debate about the mid-season break will be brought to the fore again.

"The only problem with that is that no-one can forecast exactly when the bad weather is going to be and it is something that we have to accept".

Should anyone wish to tear apart my suggestions, please feel free to do so.

'Talking Bill Thomas'