Roeder: Fixture schedule is "madness"
Roeder is under pressure to deliver at St James Park
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Friday, 03, Nov 2006 08:20
Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder has slammed his side's fixture list as "madness" with the Magpies facing three games in six days.
Roeder, whose side picked up an impressive 1-0 win over Palermo on Thursday, clash with Sheffield United on Saturday and face Watford in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.
The former West Ham boss said it was folly to expect the Magpies to play a Premiership match two days after a European game.
"To expect players to recover in less than 48 hours is ridiculous," he said.
"It is a big ask to have to play on Thursday, Saturday and then Tuesday, but we have got to overcome that."
"The way things are going with the Uefa Cup and Carling Cup, we do have too many games."
Blades boss Neil Warnock said Newcastle did not want to re-schedule the fixture because it is televised.
"I was a little bit surprised when I heard they wanted to play on Saturday but the finances are massive now so you can't really blame them," he said.
"What is it they get? £350,000? We're talking professional footballers here and they should be able to handle it."
"Newcastle didn't give us the option to switch days. If they had done, we would have switched."
The Magpies are desperate for a win having gone six games without a victory which has seen them slump to 17th in the table.
Sheffield United languish 19th with two victories from ten games and have not won in the Premiership since September 30th.