REDHILL manager Mike Maher insists it is "criminal" to ask semi-professional footballers to travel to Guernsey over the festive period.
Last season Crawley Down Gatwick lost 11-0 to the Green Lions after being handed a New Year's Day away trip but this year it is the Lobsters who had the unlucky draw and are due to play the Channel Islanders on Saturday.
And Redhill boss Maher admits he will be forced to travel with a depleted squad for the 1pm kick-off, adding it is unfair that the east Surrey club should be hit with the burden due to their proximity to Gatwick Airport.
"We have a couple suspended, Rob Hill is injured, Jon Difford is injured, Bradley Duke is a doubt and then there are other players like Michael Hunter who can't travel," the manager lamented.
"We have a 6am meet at the club and many of the squad are having to get up at 4am, which isn't great preparation.
"It shouldn't be allowed; it's criminal.
"We couldn't rearrange it because Guernsey want the game then; it's a huge advantage to them.
"It's our players getting up at the crack of dawn.
"We saw what happened to Crawley Down last season.
"It's a tough scenario but we just have to go there and do our best and then move on to the Merstham game [on New Year's Day].
"We have got this fixture because we are close to Gatwick but it doesn't take into account that our players don't all live in Redhill.
"We have players from London and Kent and if they don't have a car it's a nightmare for them.
"There are other clubs down the M23 like Worthing and Burgess Hill Town who could probably get to Gatwick easier than we could."
Redhill go in to the Guernsey game on the back of a 5-0 thrashing at Three Bridges on Saturday – a result which leaves them third from bottom – and Maher admits his side were "off the pace".
"We were terrible from start to finish," the Lobsters boss said.
"Nothing went right and we were completely off the pace. Three Bridges battered us.
"I had to take Jon Difford off in the first half; that's three times he's come back from the same injury now and then had to go off so that's something I need to look at.
"And Chris O'Flaherty came off early as well because we need to change the shape, but really he was unlucky because it could have been any one of three or four players.
"We improved a bit in the second half but we still never looked like scoring."
