IT is with regret that Torquay United have been forced to cancel the Devon Cup game at Plymouth Parkway on Wednesday night.
Unfortunately, the fixture schedule conspired to give us Under-18 fixtures on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, plus the first-team game at Hungerford on Saturday.
Added into the pot is an important fixture at Lymington Town on Saturday and manager Gary Johnson does not want to risk any of a senior squad already stretched by a number of injuries ahead of this FA Cup clash.
“It is a great shame that we were unable to change any of the games and it is simply too much to ask the young lads to play yet another competitive fixture this week,” said Gary. “Our focus turns to Lymington on Saturday and I would also like to wish our youngsters the very best at Wells City tomorrow night.”
The original plan was to utilise our Under-18 squad, who performed superbly to beat Champion Sports 8-0 in the League on Saturday and also a 4-1 triumph at Plympton in the Devon Under-18s Cup on Sunday.
We travel to Wells City in the FA Youth Cup on Tuesday night and the option of playing four games in the space of five days would be incredibly unfair on the players.
Torquay United has made requests to the various authorities for one or two of these games to be rescheduled but to no avail. We respect that decision and wish Plymouth Parkway the best of luck in the next round of the competition.