ATHERTON LR manager Dave Morris called for a change in the rules for the early rounds of the FA Cup to bring them into line with the latter stages when the top Premiership clubs come into the draw.

"It seems silly," he says, "that the smaller clubs like ourselves that enter the competition right from the off have to go through replay after replay sometimes to reach a decision, whereas the latter stages are run on the basis of one replay then extra time, then penalties.

"We have had to play Liversedge four times in the Preliminary Round, and while they were a nice bunch of people and we saw some good competitive football, surely it would have been better for all concerned to have reached a decision on penalties after the second game.

"As it was, we had to travel over to West Yorkshire on the Thursday night after they'd come to us on the Monday and yet again it went to extra time. If we'd have drawn on that occasion, we would have had to toss a coin for venue and play a fifth game on the Saturday! "Fortunately we won it, but it meant that our players had played four cup ties, three of which went to extra time, in the course of 10 days and then had to turn out 48 hours later in the 1st Qualifying Round against a top side like Ilkeston Town.

"I don't really know how we won that one because they were all so shattered. Thankfully they managed to find some extra energy reserves from somewhere. It's not only players getting exhausted that's a headache.

"Playing extra games also increases the likelihood of injuries and suspensions. We lost Dave Channon, a defender we paid money for in the summer, because he got sent off, and several players were going into matches carrying knocks and slight strains. You need a squad of 20-odd first team players sometimes to cater for things like that and many clubs at our level just can't afford to do that. "The biggest thing though is the actual cost of staging three games at this level of the competition. Coach travel can cost us around £400 per time, there are programmes to produce which can be costly, extra money has to be found for match officials and all sorts of incidentals which all add up to a quite significant total.

"The crowds watching us in the replays were registered as 104 at our place on the Monday and just 75 at Liversedge on the Thursday, so the gate revenues don't even begin to bite into what it has cost both clubs.

"I'm sure Liversedge, and the vast majority of other clubs at this level, would agree that penalties after the first replay has to be good for everyone.

"It has been brought in for the latter stages to avoid some of the big clubs building up a backlog of fixtures, and yet they can stand to make quite vast sums of money out of extra games. Surely it's us at the lower levels that need the protection in these times when cash is tight everywhere.

"As long as both opponents go into ties knowing what's involved, you can set your stall out accordingly. Thankfully we came through those games and then have to return to the league programme. Because we lost our first three fixtures, the league table shows us rock bottom. "So not only have we fallen behind rivals in the number of games played and therefore have to catch up at some stage, which means more midweek games, there is also the psychological hurdle to overcome of lifting tired players who see themselves bottom of the table.

"It just doesn't seem right to me, and nearly everyone at our club has been saying the same. I don't know how we go about getting things like this changed, but surely something should be done about it!"

LR will, get a good taster of what the 2nd Qualifying round holds for them in the league visit to Curzon Ashton this afternoon. The two are drawn against each other next Saturday at Crilly Park. ATHERTON-BORN Barry Butler suffered the fate that every footballer dreads last weekend.

An innocuous challenge left the former Town and LR player with a double fracture of his right leg, just above the ankle.

Ironically, the tragedy came just five minutes from the end of his side, Altrincham's, home Vauxhall Conference 1-1 draw with Woking and he had played so well in the centre of defence that he had picked up the Man of the Match nomination!

The player, who only went into the professional game in his mid-twenties, enjoyed several seasons with Chester City before joining Altie three years ago.

He is rated by top non-League manager John King as one of his best ever signings.

The injury, the first ever serious one in his career, could not have come at a worse time as the popular Butler has just turned 34. Having spent the week in Beaumont Hospital, he has had the injury pinned and plated and faces a long, hard fight back to fitness.

He was quite understandably deeply depressed when I spoke to him, although that could have had a lot to do with a visit from former Atherton Town mate Sean Taylor!

"I must admit that it has crossed my mind not to play seriously again," he says. "At my age it can be difficult to get back from a bad injury, I'll just have to see how it goes. There has been tons of good wishes coming in from loads of people and that has bucked me up a lot. "Altie only have about seven or eight hundred regular followers but they are an absolutely smashing lot. It just seemed that everything conspired to go wrong on the day.

"Motorway problems for Woking meant we kicked off 10 minutes late so, under normal circumstances, we wouldn't have been playing at the time it actually happened!

"Perhaps getting the Man of the Match Award was just a sympathy vote! It's a real sickener but I'll just have to see how things go. I suppose I should look on the brighter side, at my age I can always make my comeback in the Veterans League!"

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.