TAUNTON Town boss Rob Dray has slammed the “crazy” decision to schedule midweek league matches prior to FA Cup weekends.

Nick Grimes picked up a knee injury in Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Dorchester Town, which has left the defender a serious doubt for Saturday’s second qualifying round trip to Havant & Waterlooville.

Jamie Price (back), Ben Adelsbury (hamstring) and Shane White (groin) also each have niggles - Ed Palmer, meanwhile, is at a wedding on Saturday.

“We will patch them up and get them out there because it’s a one-off cup game,” Dray said.

“But it is crazy to be having midweek games before the FA Cup - who decides that?

“We’re playing in the cup on Saturday, as are Dorchester - why couldn’t it have been rearranged?

“The Southern League want teams to be representing them in the FA Cup but this makes it far harder to do so.”

On the match itself, Dray admitted it was “two points dropped” for his side due to the chances they created.

“We deserved to win, without a doubt,” he said.

“It wasn’t just the penalties - we hit the post, hit the bar and it was just one of those nights.

“We totally dominated the play and our all-round play was outstanding - I can’t fault our performance.

“We kept going right until the end and got our reward – it would have been a travesty had we lost that game.

“It always says a lot when the opposition put their centre forward at centre-half for the last 20 minutes.

“They had six at the back, four in midfield and no-one up front in that spell - but 20 minutes is too long to hold on like that against this team.”

Town’s boss was also unimpressed with the 4G playing surface, which has been in place at Dorchester since the start of last season.

“It is not for me,” Dray said.

“It doesn’t have the feel of a proper game and the lads aren’t huge fans of it.

“I think Dorchester have the best stadium in this league, the facilities are fantastic, but I’m not a huge fan of the pitch.”

Dray added: “Teams are raising their games against us this year.

“I think you will see a lot of teams this year get beaten in the games immediately following the one against us due to the effort they are putting in.”