THE West Lancashire Football League has confirmed it will allow clubs to extend their respective seasons by two weeks if needed, writes Will Jackson.

Local football action has been badly affected by flooding, with many games being called off due to waterlogging over the past two months.

League representatives have also revealed they will allow games to be played on a 4G surface, however not all clubs have access to an artificial surface.

Turton, who compete in the First Division, currently have seven games in hand on Ladybridge immediately above them in second place.

And chairman Peter Gray is concerned about the effects a fixture build-up may have on his team’s hopes of title success.

“You see it now, Premier League managers complaining about fixture pile-ups,” he said. “But you can see it at amateur level as well.

“If you add to the problem that players are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, availability becomes a real problem.”

Turton had been flying high prior to the mass postponement of games with eight wins from the 10 games they have played so far this season.

But with just 34 games played in the entire league since October, waterlogged pitches are proving problematic.

Things were looking up for Turton before the weekend with the club hoping a game would help blow away the Christmas cobwebs. However, they were denied by the weather yet again when their home fixture with Askam United was postponed.

Gray said: “We’ve not played for a while and the majority of the games we have played have been away.

“We’ve got lots of home games coming up.

“We were grateful to get a game on before the Christmas break and to win is always good.

“But the lads need a game now. They’ve all been eating and drinking too much, but we are confident of title success.

“We just need to keep pushing on. We know we can do it.”