Our home match against Farsley Celtic, originally scheduled for this Saturday but put back a day due to our match against Oxford being moved to Thursday for TV coverage, will now be played next Tuesday evening, 21st August, at 7.45pm.

This was our originally preferred date but Farsley would not agree to that day, preferring Sunday, and after protracted discussions between both clubs the Conference was called to arbitrate and decided that the game would be played on Sunday.

That date caused problems due to all three of our club doctors being unavailable, so Farsley offered to bring their club doctor to cover both teams and the Safety Advisory Group agreed that we could employ extra paramedics to cover the crowd, which meant that the game could go ahead on Sunday. However, Farsley's undertaking to bring their club doctor to cover both teams, which is a requirement of the Conference, has not been confirmed in writing by today's deadline so the match has been moved again for safety reasons.

U's Club Secretary Wayne Purser explained, "When the Conference informed us that the game would take place on the Sunday we put the wheels in motion to prepare for the game, but on contacting our doctors we were informed that none of them could cover the game. That obviously gave us an issue because there is a doctor that looks after the two teams, as per the Conference rules, and there is a crowd doctor who we have to have in place as part of our safety certificate.

"We made contact with the Conference to let them know the issues that had arisen and after discussions between ourselves, the Conference and Farsley, Farsley offered to provide the doctor to look after the two teams if we could find a solution to the crowd doctor.

"Malcolm Taylor, the Safety Advisory Group chairman who works for Trading Standards, made an exemption that for one game we could cover the crowd by employing more paramedics, which we did. Everyone was happy to proceed on that basis, but Farsley were requested to provide written confirmation that their doctor would indeed attend and by the end of last week that confirmation had still not been received.

"Discussions have taken place since then and apparently the doctor Farsley had hoped to bring would not be in attendance, so the Conference gave them a deadline of this morning to find a doctor as per their proposal. That confirmation never came but their Chairman contacted the Conference to say they were still looking into it and requesting an extension to 12 noon, which the Conference gave.

"But by 12 Farsley had not been in contact, although various messages had been left for their chairman by Dennis Strudwick, the General Manager at the Conference, so they have now been told that because they had not confirmed their arrangement to bring a doctor to cover the teams on Sunday, the game has been switched to Tuesday night for a 7.45pm kick off."

All other arrangements to hold the game on Sunday had been put in place by Cambridge United with the relevant authorities including the ambulance service, the police, the Safety Advisory Group etc.

Mindful that this is the second time a new date has been announced at short notice for this match, Wayne added, "I can understand that people will have made plans and will be unhappy about changes being made at short notice, but I hope they understand that this is an unusual situation that has arisen with the doctors and we tried our hardest to play the game on Sunday.

"The game has now been moved to the Tuesday evening for the reasons explained, and we apologise for any problems and inconvenience this has caused our supporters."

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