Tonights game is off

[fred binneys head]

The Vale fans, however, were faced with a long and wasted journey. This was made worse by the fact that a member of staff at Exeter told me on the phone on Friday that the game was certain to go ahead, even when I pointed out the predicted very low overnight temperatures. It also reflected very poorly on your club that no one was available to answer the phone on Saturday morning when, having already travelled down on the Friday and seen the state of things on Saturday morning, I attempted to find out if an early inspection was planned.

I'm not having a go at your fans - I bet some of you lot made fruitless journeys from outside the area on Saturday as well. I'm just annoyed that having seen the forecast and been concerned about the game more than 24 hours in advance, no one at the club seemed alive to the problem.

Not sure if you've seen it yet but apparently the referee did see the pitch earlier and said the game was on. He then changed his mind at 1.20pm or whenever it was.

We have had problems with the phone system recently which is inexcusable and didn't help matters. If you want to know more or just enjoy making puns about swans then go to the "who you gonna call?" thread.

 

[Jason H]

Beat me to it, FBH - was about to post pretty much exactly the same thing.

 

[Arfur Towcrate]

Not sure if you've seen it yet but apparently the referee did see the pitch earlier and said the game was on. He then changed his mind at 1.20pm or whenever it was.

We have had problems with the phone system recently which is inexcusable and didn't help matters. If you want to know more or just enjoy making puns about swans then go to the "who you gonna call?" thread.

The ref saw the pitch for the first time when he arrived at the ground which was well after noon. I assumed this was his normal arrival time. The problems with your phone system were not the reason why I couldn't get a reply. I read about them on your website and it said that the fault meant the answerphone responses weren't working. On Saturday morning, they were working, both in the main office and in the club shop. I know because I rang on a number of occasions and kept geting messages saying they were unable to answer, or in the case of the club shop, too busy to answer.

I suspect those of you who had the misfortune to travel to Dagenham were fed up with the pathetic situation with the floodlights and were blaming the home club. If so, you know how I feel!!

 

[Martin Lawrence]

With respect though, if you had got through to speak to somebody, they would have almost certainly said that the game would still be going ahead. Our head groundsman came into the office at mid day and was convinced the game would go ahead.

 

[Fareham Grecian]

The ref saw the pitch for the first time when he arrived at the ground which was well after noon. I assumed this was his normal arrival time. The problems with your phone system were not the reason why I couldn't get a reply. I read about them on your website and it said that the fault meant the answerphone responses weren't working. On Saturday morning, they were working, both in the main office and in the club shop. I know because I rang on a number of occasions and kept geting messages saying they were unable to answer, or in the case of the club shop, too busy to answer.

I suspect those of you who had the misfortune to travel to Dagenham were fed up with the pathetic situation with the floodlights and were blaming the home club. If so, you know how I feel!!

Too busy to answer in the club shop?? Never heard any complaints about the service in there before...

 

[fred binneys head]

The ref saw the pitch for the first time when he arrived at the ground which was well after noon. I assumed this was his normal arrival time. The problems with your phone system were not the reason why I couldn't get a reply. I read about them on your website and it said that the fault meant the answerphone responses weren't working. On Saturday morning, they were working, both in the main office and in the club shop. I know because I rang on a number of occasions and kept geting messages saying they were unable to answer, or in the case of the club shop, too busy to answer.

I suspect those of you who had the misfortune to travel to Dagenham were fed up with the pathetic situation with the floodlights and were blaming the home club. If so, you know how I feel!!

Do you have any swan puns?

 

[Arfur Towcrate]

With respect though, if you had got through to speak to somebody, they would have almost certainly said that the game would still be going ahead. Our head groundsman came into the office at mid day and was convinced the game would go ahead.

I understand that but the fact that I couldn't get through simply added to the frustration. I also can't understand why your groundsman thought the patch in front of the stand which hadn't thawed by 1 pm was going to be OK in the second half when the sun went down.

It was absolutely freezing on Saturday. The lake outside the Holiday Inn Express where I was staying was frozen solid and it took me a fair while to get the thick ice off my car. It just astonished me that no one at the club even suspected there might be a problem.

Incidentally, just out of interest, who was it who wanted the original date re-arranged - some of our fans reckon it was our lot and some reckon it was yours?

 

[Martin Lawrence]

Both teams have to agree before there is a re-arrangement. Incidentally I take your point about the phones and this is something that I think should be looked at. I would like to see our main club reception open on a match day. This would allowthe phones to be answered and therefore take the strain off the already overstretched club shop. If I can be part of the solution to help make this happen, I will try to be.

 

[trev61]

your gripe is not with our football club sonny.....we prepared the ground fit to play. ultimately,its down to the match officials whether to go ahead or not.next time,phone them.

 

[Nigel E]

I understand that but the fact that I couldn't get through simply added to the frustration. I also can't understand why your groundsman thought the patch in front of the stand which hadn't thawed by 1 pm was going to be OK in the second half when the sun went down.

It was absolutely freezing on Saturday. The lake outside the Holiday Inn Express where I was staying was frozen solid and it took me a fair while to get the thick ice off my car. It just astonished me that no one at the club even suspected there might be a problem.

Incidentally, just out of interest, who was it who wanted the original date re-arranged - some of our fans reckon it was our lot and some reckon it was yours?

I suspect that the original confidence in the pitch being ok on Saturday was that the weather was quite similar in the preceding days, when the frost had got out of the ground by midday.

In fact, just two days before - on New Years Day - they managed to stage a horse racing meeting over the jumps at Exeter racecourse, which is located outside the city up on Haldon Hill, and is approximately 500 feet above sea level. It was bloody cold - I know I was there! - but it warmed up sufficiently to melt the frost and allow the meeting to take place (albeit a hurdle-only card). And if anything, horse racing officials are more cautious than football ones; any accidents on horseback at 30-odd mph can seriously endanger life.

In those circumstances it was fair enough to give the pitch a chance, say, at least until 11.30. As it happened it just didn't get warmer, despite the sun. Yes, a decision could have been made a little bit sooner, but not by much, and I can't see how that would have helped away fans.

Frankly, all this whinging is now beginning to get a bit tiresome. It was by all accounts a very marginal decision by the referee; I'm sure some refs would have allowed it to go ahead. And I daresay any local ref inspecting it earlier would have guessed, wrongly, that it would thaw later in the day.