The remarkable statistic which has savaged Baffins Milton Rovers and Portsmouth Women’s 2019/20 fixture lists ...

Last Saturday, Baffins Milton Rovers’ scheduled home Wessex League game against Amesbury Town at the PMC Stadium was called off due to the state of the pitch.

Sadly, that was nothing new.

In fact, it was the 22nd game postponed at the ground involving Baffins and Portsmouth Women since the end of September.

Of those 22 games, 13 have involved Baffins. One match - a League Cup tie with Brockenhurst - has been called off four times.

Baffins have only completed 22 Wessex games - fewer than anyone else in their division - in the 28 weeks since the season started on August 3. They have only played eight home games, compared to Shaftesbury’s 16 and AFC Portchester’s 14.

That means they still have 11 home league games to cram into the final two and a half months of one of the wettest seasons in local football league history.

Portsmouth Women, who have also played at the PMC Stadium since the start of last season, have also been savagely hit by continual postponements.

They have seen nine home games called off, and have been forced to reschedule some games for other venues in a bid to actually play in front of their own supporters.

Jay Sadler’s squad have only played three of their 11 Southern Premier Division league games at the PMC Stadium, the last of which was on September 22.

A recent National League Cup quarter final against Hampshire rivals Southampton had to be moved to Gosport Borough’s Privett Park.

The following day, Portsmouth were back in action on a 3G pitch at Furze Lane against Bedhampton in the Portsmouth Senior Cup.

Here is a list of this season’s PMC Stadium postponements ..

Baffins Milton

Eight Wessex League games have been called off - v Christchurch (October 16), Alresford (October 19), Hamworthy (November 16), Horndean (November 20), AFC Portchester (November 30), Bournemouth (December 14), Fleet (January 11) and Amesbury (February 15).

In addition, the FA Vase tie against Bradford Town was postponed on November 2 - it was played four days later - while the League Cup tie against Brockenhurst was postponed on November 27, January 14, January 29 and February 12

The Brockenhurst tie has now been switched to the Dorset club’s ground and will be played this coming Saturday.

As a result, Baffins’ scheduled home Wessex League game against leaders AFC Stoneham has been postponed!

Portsmouth Women

They have seen league games against Gillingham (September 29 and January 26). Yeovil (October 27), Plymouth (November 3) and Cardiff (January 19) called off.

On the second attempt to play Gillingham, the game was called off literally minutes before it was due to start.

In addition, an FA Cup tie with Leyton Orient scheduled for December 1 was postponed and a Hampshire Senior Cup tie with Winchester was called off on January 16 and January 30.

Ironically, when the tie was switched to Privett Park last Sunday, it still wasn’t played as Winchester decided to withdraw from the tournament two days earlier.

Portsmouth Women’s ninth PMC Stadium postponement was the League Cup tie with Southampton on February 2.

All these postponements have left Baffins having played just 16 league games in the last 151 days (September 21-February 18 inclusive). That is a hectic schedule, mind you, compared to Pompey Women … they have only played two league games since October 9.

Now Baffins must shoehorn their remaining 16 games into a 67-day period between now and April 25.

The Wessex League season was due to end on Saturday, April 18, but that has now been extended by a week.

All the games that were postponed last weekend - the entire league programme with the exception of Stoneham’s home game with Tadley on a 3G pitch - has now been rearranged for Saturday, April 25.

In order words, there are 10 Saturdays left of 2019/20. And Baffins have 11 home games to fit in!

They are also through to the semi-finals of the Portsmouth Senior Cup, and victory at Brockenhurst would take them through to the quarter finals of the Wessex League Cup (and another home game, against AFC Stoneham).

Since the end of October, Baffins have only played four home first team games at the PMC Stadium.

Boss Steve Leigh was adamant two of those shouldn’t really have gone ahead - last month’s league game with Lymington and a Portsmouth Senior Cup tie against Paulsgrove.

Against Lymington, the pitch cut up badly from an early stage and, against Paulsgrove, Rovers midfielder George Way suffered an ankle injury which Leigh attributed to the soft pitch.

Of course, end-of-season non-league fixture chaos is nothing new.

Only four years ago, in 2015/16, Horndean did not play a single home Wessex game between December 5 and March 15.

Consequently, they ended up playing their last eight home games in a 21-day period - on April 19, 23, 26, 28 and 30, and May 3, 7 and 9. They also played Moneyfields away on May 5.

Even more recently, Paulsgrove played nine Hampshire Premier League games in April 2018 - on the 4, 7, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28 and 30.

They were also due to host QK Southampton in the league on April 14, but the visitors failed to raise a team.

Paulsgrove's last league game was on May 2 and the Hampshire Intermediate Cup final was on May 5.

In the 12 games that were played, Grove won 11 of them - only losing a league game 2-0 to Liphook.

But even those fixture lists involving Horndean and Paulsgrove pale when compared to the phenomenal congestion experienced by 1874 Northwich and Canvey Island.

In 2017/18, Northwich played their last 22 North West Counties League games in just 38 days.

They played on March 26, 28, 29 and 31, April 5, 7, 9, 12, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28 and 30, and May 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12.

No doubt the players were a bit tired after completing exactly half their league fixtures in less than seven weeks!

Back in 2000/01, Canvey Island’s final 12 Ryman League games were crammed into 18 days.

They played on April 18, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28 and 29 and then, incredibly, on May 1,2,3,4 and 5.

That’s right - five games in as many days.

Imagine what Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola would say if you told them their clubs had to emulate those sort of fixture lists that part-time players were forced to complete?

‘No’, probably.