With much of the North West covered in ice and snow, the chances of most Vodkat League clubs seeing any action this weekend are already slim, but the best chance appears to be at AFC Blackpool, where Club Secretary Billy Singleton (pictured left) is cautiously optimistic that conditions may improve to allow their Division One game at home to Chadderton to go ahead.
"We haven't seen weather like this for many years in Blackpool, and you only need to look next door to us at Blackpool Airport which was closed the other day because of snow and ice. I've never known that to happen before, so that shows we are dealing with weather that is more severe than we are used to over here.
"We've had two postponements now this season, one on Boxing Day when we were due to play Wigan Robin Park and on Tuesday night when we had a Division One Trophy game scheduled against Daisy Hill. Last year and the year before we didn't have any games postponed at all, so having games called off is an unusual experience for us.
"As of Wednesday afternoon there was about three or four inches of snow on the pitch, but even if there was just a slight thaw I wouldn't rule out the chances of Saturday's game against Chadderton being on. I've got great faith in the quality of our pitch, the playing surface is good and the drainage system now is excellent.
"When we had the snow at Christmas, I popped down to the ground on Christmas Day for a look and there was no chance of a game going on there. We obviously had to make a decision early on Boxing Day morning and we had to call it off, but if we could have got an army of volunteers down there quickly to clear the snow as it began to thaw, we could possibly have played.
"With that in mind, we certainly won't be calling the game off before Saturday. I'll get a pitch inspection arranged on Friday afternoon, and we will have a look at 10 am on Saturday morning. I think sometimes clubs can be a bit hasty in calling games off, and we're determined to get the game on if at all possible".
