1874 Northwich's fixture congestion is absolutely bonkers

Never shall we listen to a Premier League manager complain about fixture congestion again: North West Counties side 1874 Northwich have begun a run of 23 matches in 30 days as they seek to recover ground lost to winter postponements.

The club, which bloomed in 2012 after the financial chaos that engulfed Northwich Victoria, evidently have significant issues with the drainage at their home ground, Barton Stadium, and have been left with a huge fixture backlog. It's made for a staggering 23 postponements so far. 

If you're thinking that this is just an inevitable obstacle routinely faced at such a low level of the game - the Hallmark Security Premier League (ninth tier) - then you'd be wrong. Northwich are currently in eighth place, but have played 11 fewer games than leaders Runcorn Linnets. In fact, they've played just 23 games - which is five fewer than Ashton Athletic, the second-most disrupted side in the competition.

The good news is that should Northwich win all of their games in hand, they could theoretically move as high as second in the table, but the bad news - obviously - is the lack of recovery time built into a fixture list which would humble even the best conditioned professional players.

Things haven't started well either: Northwich were beaten 2-0 by City of Liverpool on Monday night.

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