Update from Graham Baker

I spoke to Graham Baker on the phone this afternoon for an update. Graham had hoped to get to Kingfield today but had been prevented from driving up from Hampshire by the awful road conditions.

Like everyone else, Graham is expecting Saturday’s game at Oxford to be called off and he suspects that this will be true too on Tuesday (which is when the game would be re-arranged for in the first instance, causing the postponement of the Surrey Senior Cup tie against Dorking).

The Club is talking to Crystal Palace with a view to bringing back Matthew Wright and Nathaniel Pinney for further loan spells. Nathaniel, though, is suspended for three games and, of course, the longer this big freeze goes on, the longer it will take him to work through his suspension. In Matthew’s case the only timing issue is the fact that he can’t play in the Trophy tie.

Graham Baker confirmed that, contrary to some press reports, Moses Ademola’s loan period runs on till the end of the month. The Club have been talking to Brentford with the aim of getting their agreement to extend it, ideally till the end of the season.

Luke Medley’s loan period from Barnet runs out after the game on 16 January.

On the suspensions front, the current position is that, apart from Nathaniel Pinney, the only players currently subject to suspension are Tom Hutchinson, who is suspended for one game from 11 January, and Jamie Hand, who is suspended for three games from 9 January. According to The FA, Aswad Thomas is not subject to suspension even though the Club had thought that he’d picked up sufficient bookings.

Graham says, not surprisingly, that the weather has led to difficulties in organising training. Because of the road conditions only five players reported for training today but indoors training is booked for tomorrow and Saturday. Training outside is of course more difficult: running in the snow, provided it’s not icy, is fine but ball work isn’t possible. We are luckier than some clubs in that that we had three games over the holiday period whereas some clubs, like Oxford, haven’t played for nearly a month. Graham hopes that – provided the freeze doesn’t continue too long – we might have an edge over other clubs in terms of fitness when games resume.