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Charlton Athletic defender Matt Taylor writes for the KM Group

08:00, 09 February 2012

Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor

It's just as frustrating for players as supporters when matches are called off due to the weather.

Just like supporters, we prepare all week for the game on a Saturday and when we left the training ground on Friday evening we were thinking that the following day’s match against Rochdale would be on.

Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case and although I’m not surprised the game was postponed given the temperatures and bad weather, it’s still disappointing because it was a big game for us and one that we were keen to win.

The bad weather does make things difficult. The pitches at Sparrows Lane have been just as frozen as The Valley, but the groundstaff have been working hard and we’ve been training later than usual or been able to train in the indoor dome that we have at New Eltham.

We’ve also used the David Beckham Academy near the O2.

It’s not ideal for your body to use those indoor surfaces regularly, though, so hopefully it will thaw out over the next few days and we can get some good training in before the Chesterfield match.

There is nothing you can do in such situations, as we saw last season when dozens of games were called off due to the snow. All you can do is make sure that you are as prepared as you can be and maintain your fitness.

The postponement was doubly annoying for me because it was my birthday weekend and I had a lot of friends and family down for the game.

In the end, we went out for a meal instead, so I was still kept quite busy.

My family watch Charlton games quite a lot – although my mum only comes if they don’t clash with Manchester United’s matches.

She’s a big United fan, and she’ll always go to Old Trafford if they’re at home, but the rest

of the family tend to come to watch me when we play up north, such as this weekend’s match against Chesterfield.

Saturday’s game will be a difficult one. They’re near the bottom of the league, but their form has improved and reaching Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy has helped their league form in some ways.

We’ve got a good away record, though, and we’ve got to approach the match confidently and looking to pick up all three points to maintain our run.

Kent Matchday Live
Kent Matchday Live
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