Four hour coach ride to Weymouth hinders Burton's chances

Non-league / Editor / 21 August 2007 /

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Legendary manager Frank Gregan on why home advantage makes Weymouth such a cracking price for Thursday night's match

Preparation is getting so much more thorough at all levels of the game. It's hard to strike the balance between spending unnecessary money on the club's behalf and making sure that the players' preparation is spot on. I remember once having an argument with the chairman at Forest Green about an overnight stay prior to playing Scarborough on a Saturday. Eventually he relented when I insisted that if we didn't prepare properly we would get nothing from the game. The hotel bill was in the region of £2000 and I remember looking up at the electronic scoreboard in the ground with only 9 minutes on the clock to see the score-line Scarborough 3 Forest Green 0. You start to do the maths on occasions like that and I was thinking "This is going to end up 30-0!" It didn't, it ended 5-0 which was still bad enough and a waste of 2 grand.

Weymouth is one of those places that no matter what route you take it is a nightmare to get to. Burton Albion travel there on Thursday night for the live Blue Square Premier game. The time taken for the journey between Burton to Weymouth on the RAC route planner is over 4 hours. Time has to be added on for the unexpected delay and of course the players will probably have a pre match meal at a hotel. The optimum time for eating is three hours before kick off so the coach will probably stop about 30 miles away from Weymouth and complete the last leg of the journey around half past five, arriving at the ground at 6.15 pm for a 7.45 kick off. When you take into account the players will have had to drive to get to the coach that will probably mean they will have been travelling for about 6 hours prior to getting to the ground. There are variations on the routine but no matter what way you look at it that is still one tough journey to have to make midweek. It is for that reason that my few bob will be invested on Weymouth. I looked at the match odds market expecting them to be about 2.1 and was delighted to see them available at 2.66. That will do for me, I think it's a great price. However, after the game spare a thought for the lads from Burton. They are unlikely to get home much before 3 am!

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