Eleven games in 36 days for Dawlish
THE RELENTLESS barrage of Toolstation Western League fixtures continues to test Dawlish Town's powers of resilience, writes Chris Rogers.
The Seasiders are still playing catch-up with the rest of the Premier Division, and a run of 11 games in the final 36 days of the season begins at Sherborne Town tomorrow (3pm).
Manager Jeff Evans is frustrated the league deadline of April 24 cannot be extended to accommodate his side's backlog of fixtures — caused by their FA Vase run and the bad weather over winter.
"It's getting very hard," said Evans. "After all the fun of trying to get to the last 16 of the Vase, and as high up the league as possible, the players are dead on their feet."
Several are suffering with injury too, the latest being skipper Gary Fisher.
The central midfielder turned awkwardly during Tuesday night's 3-3 draw with Calne Town at Sandy Lane, and has re-injured the knee that gave him some trouble earlier in the season.
With central defender Paul Kendall now also out — he is likely to miss the rest of the season to have a hernia operation — it leaves Evans with few options to change things around.
On Tuesday night, Dean Stevens put the Seasiders 1-0 up in a first-half they largely dominated.
Two Calne breakaways cost the hosts dear, though, and the Wiltshire side found themselves 2-1 up at the interval through a Scott Evans double.
Back from suspension, Craig Fenner got Dawlish back into the game in the second half, before Stevens seemingly banked the three points with his second of the evening.
But Calne had the last laugh, rescuing a point through Rob Drown in the final moments.
With Kendall out and Fisher a major doubt, Evans will also wait until closer to kick-off before assessing other first-teamers carrying niggling injuries.
Sean Adderley still hasn't played since having his knee injured in a tackle against Longwell Green, while left-footer Luke Martin and goalkeeper Luke Purnell are suffering sore groins.
After tomorrow's visit to Sherborne, Dawlish have three successive home games against Welton Rovers (March 23), Melksham Town (March 27) and a return encounter with Sherborne (March 30).
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