Brady and Evans raise concerns over amount of stoppage-time played in League One opener

Cobblers boss Jon Brady and Stevenage manager Steve Evans have both raised concerns over the ‘extreme’ amount of stoppage-time that was played in Saturday’s opening game of the season at Sixfields.

The EFL and Premier League have introduced new guidance this season in an attempt to clampdown on time-wasting and increase the amount of ball in-play time, with referees told to add more time on for things like goal celebrations, injuries and substitutions.

However, in the first half at Sixfields on Saturday, there were no goals, no substitutions and no injuries and yet the officials added on eight additional minutes. That became 22 in total by the end of the contest after 14 were added in the second half, making it the longest match of the whole weekend in the EFL at 112 minutes and 36 seconds.

Brady believes the extra time will put players’ welfare at risk, and may even mean clubs have the change the way they train to reduce the chances of injury. Town are already taking a cautious approach to managing their players’ minutes at the start of this season with several only just back from long-term injuries.

"With these extra minutes, it's going to test a lot of teams, especially those with smaller squads,” said Brady. “It's going to be really tough. You might even have to take the training down or something. I think we played 112 minutes in the end on Saturday.

"You also have the multi-ball system and I get it because you want to play the game quickly and have the ball in play for longer, but in my opinion we've gone to too much of an extreme. You're doing multi-ball, plus you're doing 22 extra minutes, and players are not attuned to that. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Steve Evans added: "It's going to be hard for everyone to adjust. We've had 22 minutes in total. I had a chat with Jon Brady on the touchline and he raised a concern with me about players getting injured.

"You're wary as a manager when you get to 80 minutes and you see your players hobbling around but you think they can get through to the end. But if you're adding on 15 minutes at the end, that's got to be a concern, especially for clubs with smaller squads.

"It won't impact a Bolton or a Derby but it'll affect us because we only have a small squad.”

Referees are also being told to clampdown on time-wasting antics this season, something that was evident on Saturday when both Stevenage captain Carl Piergianni and Cobblers defender Akin Odimayo were booked for kicking the ball away in the first half. Evans did not feel that rule was applied consistently and was cautioned himself for his protests on the touchline.

"I have absolutely no complaints with the referee for giving me a yellow card, none at all, because my arms are waving and it's not right,” he added.

"But I was frustrated because I've watched the striker kick the ball away nonchalantly and he's not been booked. Howard Webb presented to us as a group of managers in the week and he told us that kicking the ball away two yards is the same as kicking it out the ground so it should be a yellow card. That was part of my frustration.”