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Six Pools games switched to Friday night
By Clarence Rode June 20 2008
Hartlepool United have switched six matches in the new season from Saturday afternoons to Friday nights, four of them at home and two away. Two of the changes have been made because England World Cup qualifying matches are due to be played on the Saturdays in question, while the other four have changed because of the club’s continuing love affair with Friday night fixtures.
Both changes caused by England games are away games, all the others are at home. Switching a game the Saturday before Christmas to Friday night is a good idea, but the others appear to have been changed because chairman Ken Hodcroft believes most fans like Friday night games and he seems convinced that they attract bigger crowds.
That is certainly true when England have a match on the telly to compete with a Saturday afternoon kick-off at the Vic – a practice which, of course, should be totally unacceptable, but live television now pulls so many football strings.
Of course England have to play their qualifying games some time, but while the Premiership is suspended on weekends when there are matches, the Football League has to soldier on. So why don’t England play on a Sunday – or a Friday night, come to that?
Saturday at 3pm is the traditional time for football at every ground in the country, or it used to be before telly started to mess around with things and games started kicking off any time between late Saturday morning and Sunday teatime.
In the Football League there’s nothing to stop games sticking to tradition – apart from England fixtures, which just get shoved in where the telly schedulers want them, and the small clubs can naff off.
The fixture changes are on the official Pools website.
 

Last season Pools changed three home games to Friday nights, with crowds of 4,963, 4,120 and 3,945 – hardly compelling evidence that the fans love them so much that they attract bigger gates.

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Re: Six Pools games switched to Friday night
Posted by: Rift House (IP Logged)
Date: 2008:06:22:10:07:01

I HATE Friday night games - they should only be played if there's an England match on the Saturday.

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