THE managers of two Oswestry football clubs have called for investment in facilities in the region.
Mike O’Reilly has been left exasperated as the month of storms and wet weather has meant his Morda United side have been left kicking their heels for a month.
St Martins boss Liam Braisdell echoed the sentiments.
Each said Oswestry needed its own community owned 3G pitch to serve clubs and ensure football could be played during winter months, particularly as autumn and winter storms have now become an annual feature of the British calendar.
O'Reilly said: “We’ve now had a whole month without playing due to the weather.
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“On Saturday we tried to get a 3G pitch but the facility manager of the club we tried to play at didn’t even bother to reply to my emails.”
O’Reilly said the winter training facilities available to Oswestry clubs were not suitable with Morda forced to travel to Ellesmere having contemplated crossing the border into Wales.
“We are having to travel to Ellesmere to train on a sand based astro turf,” said O’Reilly. “It was either there or all the way to Llanfyllin which is a 35-40 minute drive from Oswestry.”
O’Reilly said other clubs in the area were also struggling to train and play in winter with their pitches often enough waterlogged.
O’Reilly insisted a community owned 3G pitch would solve such problems while also providing a feast of football for the area’s football fans with the potential to scatter kick-offs throughout any given weather-impacted weekend.
“If we had a community owned 3G pitch in Oswestry then it would solve a lot of clubs trouble with training and also matchdays,” he said. “We could get three games on at the weekend, one Friday night and two on Saturday’s.”
Braisdell insisted the border clubs had been left out in the cold.
He said: "We are extremely unhappy with the lack of 3G facilities in north Shropshire.
"There are many facilities available to Telford and Shrewsbury but Morda, St Martins, Gobowen and Ellesmere have nowhere to go as it’s a very neglected area in terms of footballing facilities.
"The costs and availability of TNS make it an unrealistic option."
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