ANGRY Clarets chairman Barry Kilby believes the Football Association has ignored the needs of most of the clubs in the country by staging England's friendly with Sweden at 3pm on Saturday November 10.

And he has written to the Football League asking them to make the strongest possible representations to the FA to underline his disappointment at the decision.

Sven Goran Eriksson's men will kick off at the same time as the Clarets start against Portsmouth at Turf Moor - but Burnley will not change their match plans.

A number of other Nationwide League clubs have moved the kick-off forward to Friday night or back to Sunday but Kilby explained: "We have no plans to move it and we will still play at 3pm on Saturday.

"There are already quite a few matches that have been changed because of television - we play Sheffield United on a Sunday and Grimsby on a Friday - and we have to think about our fans who have season tickets.

"They buy their tickets expecting to see games on a Saturday. We also have a lot of long distance fans, such as the London Clarets, and for this match there are the Portsmouth fans to consider.

"I can understand why the FA might have their hands tied by FIFA or UEFA for a qualifying game, the need to kick off at the same time as other matches, but this is a friendly.

"Why can't they kick-off at 6.30pm or play it on the Sunday. As it is a friendly I presume the two teams could fix it between themselves.

"I thought the FA was supposed to stick up for the whole of the game but this will affect a lot of teams at all levels in the game except for the Premier League which has no fixtures that weekend.

"We will probably lose some money on the game but I don't think we have a choice."

Kilby's complaints fell on deaf ears at the FA as a spokesman insisted: "The time of the kick-off is a matter for the police.

"We almost had to move the kick-off against Greece because the Germans wanted to play the match two hours later but because of police demands we won the right to play at three.

"The game is not being held to pitch against clubs like Burnley and a number of teams have changed their kick-off. It is just unfortunate if they don't change their fixture times.

"This date is the only available one before Christmas, it has been set aside for the World Cup play-offs. We just don't have a choice."

Burnley did bring forward the date of their home game against Watford when it clashed with the crucial World Cup qualifier against Greece but that match was subsequently postponed because of interntaional call-ups. There is not yet a new date for the match.

Meanwhile Nik Michopoulos today picked up a national award as the winner of the Nationwide Save of the Month competition.

The award was in recognition of his stunning stop against Rotherham at Turf Moor last month when even Millers striker Mark Robins felt compelled to shake his hand.

The stop was all the more important because it came during a goalless first half of a match that Burnley went on to win 3-0.