Sidmouth Town, weather permitting, head for North Devon and a trip to Appledore for their latest South West Peninsula League Eastern Division action on Saturday.

Town last played away on October 27 when they went down 6-1 at Stoke Gabriel, since when they have had just two further league outings, the 2-1 Manstone Lane defeat at the hands of Alphington and, in their most recent outing, the 3-1 home win over Teignmouth on November 17.

Town joint boss boss Kevin Tooze says: “We hope the game is on, but it has to be in some doubt given the recent weather! “That said, it’s that time of year when you are always likely to have the elements play their part.”

One issue that continues to be a problem for Tooze and his fellow joint boss Danny Burwood is availability.

He says: “Availability is a real issue these days – arguably one of the biggest problems for football clubs at our level. Yes, there are exceptions for I am pretty sure the likes of Elmore and Stoke Gabriel do not have such problems and have a squad of players itching to play each and every week, but that’s not the case for us and many similar sized clubs playing at this level. It is certainly not like it used to be back in our playing days when, as a player, you’d make yourself available at every opportunity! But then I guess in the modern era there’s so many ‘other things’ for the lads to be doing on a Saturday.”

Tooze continued: “I don’t think it helps that our second team, playing as they do at a high standard in the local league, are in such a small division, which means so few games.

“That is clearly a factor in players ‘losing’ a bit of desire to make themselves available.

“It is frustrating, but then it is what it is and, as I have already said, we are not alone as a club troubled with availability woes. There’s plenty of others in the same boat.”