Charlton Athletic defender Matt Taylor writes for the KM Group
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It's just as frustrating for players as supporters when matches
are called off due to the weather.
Just like supporters, we prepare all week for the game on a
Saturday and when we left the training ground on Friday evening we
were thinking that the following day’s match against Rochdale would
be on.
Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case and although
I’m not surprised the game was postponed given the temperatures and
bad weather, it’s still disappointing because it was a big game for
us and one that we were keen to win.
The bad weather does make things difficult. The pitches at
Sparrows Lane have been just as frozen as The Valley, but the
groundstaff have been working hard and we’ve been training later
than usual or been able to train in the indoor dome that we have at
New Eltham.
We’ve also used the David Beckham Academy near the O2.
It’s not ideal for your body to use those indoor surfaces
regularly, though, so hopefully it will thaw out over the next few
days and we can get some good training in before the Chesterfield
match.
There is nothing you can do in such situations, as we saw last
season when dozens of games were called off due to the snow. All
you can do is make sure that you are as prepared as you can be and
maintain your fitness.
The postponement was doubly annoying for me because it was my
birthday weekend and I had a lot of friends and family down for the
game.
In the end, we went out for a meal instead, so I was still kept
quite busy.
My family watch Charlton games quite a lot – although my mum
only comes if they don’t clash with Manchester United’s
matches.
She’s a big United fan, and she’ll always go to Old Trafford if
they’re at home, but the rest
of the family tend to come to watch me when we play up north,
such as this weekend’s match against Chesterfield.
Saturday’s game will be a difficult one. They’re near the bottom
of the league, but their form has improved and reaching Wembley in
the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy has helped their league form in some
ways.
We’ve got a good away record, though, and we’ve got to approach
the match confidently and looking to pick up all three points to
maintain our run.
Wednesday, February 08 2012
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