By John Baron
Farsley Celtic have this evening announced that their next five home games will be played at the Derbyshire home of Buxton Football Club.
This agreement will see The Celts play their next home league fixtures 67 miles away at the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium, up to and including the fixture with Brackley Town on Saturday, 21 December 2024.
A club statement says: “It is then expected we will return home to The Citadel to fulfill our remaining fixtures. However, as per league requirements, we have agreed that this deal can be extended up until the end of the 2024/2025 season.”
The Celts have so far played more than 20 league, cup and pre-season friendly games away from The Citadel due to stalled work on installing a new 4G pitch at The Citadel.
The National League allowed Farsley to switch their first four scheduled home games to away fixtures, but due to ongoing delays ‘home’ games have since been played at Alfreton, Guiseley and Bradford (Park Avenue).
The statement adds: “Obviously from a geographical perspective this isn’t the ideal solution, however this time last week we thought we had an agreement in place with BPA, but they were unable to accept one of the terms put forward by the league so that agreement had to be cancelled.
“This gave us a very short period to find an alternative solution, and there are very few grounds close to us that meet the ground grading requirements by the league, and even fewer that were willing to help.
“So we are hugely grateful to Buxton for their assistance in this matter and we very much look forward to using their facility for our forthcoming matches.”
The club has been the subject of a National League transfer embargo since September. According to the National League website, the breach is for ‘non-compliance with league financial regulations’.
Addressing the embargo, the statement said: “Now we are in receipt of the details of the embargo, we have also agreed a timescale and strategy to come out of this with the league.
“We have also agreed start and finish dates and a schedule of works for the pitch upgrade with the league. These will both be updated shortly.”
Scunthorpe test
Farsley Celtic travel to promotion-chasing Scunthorpe United tomorrow night (Tuesday) as they look to bounce back from a 3-0 defeat at Hereford on Saturday.
Manager Pav Singh said individual errors “came back to haunt us”, gifting Hereford two goals.
Singh added: “I know the lads are feeling the stretch with the injuries we’re carrying, and that pressure is having a clear impact. Despite these challenges, they’re pushing through, giving everything they have, and stepping up for each other.
“We regroup and prepare to travel to Scunthorpe on Tuesday—a full-time outfit that will truly test us to the max. It’s another tough challenge, but we’ll approach it with the same determination and commitment we’ve shown all season. We’ll take the lessons from today and channel them into a performance that reflects who we are as a team.”
Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 7.45pm.