Match Off

[Oldsmobile-88]

So disappointing.

Will have to spend that day with family now. D'oh!

The Shots are still playing according to the bbc website,Paul...

 

[ramone]

I went up to Preston in the 80's to watch city play when Deepdale had astroturf, Game was off due to frozen pitch !!!???? . I'd have an early pitch inspection of your kitchen table if i were you. 8-|

Pitch has been given the all clear by the ref but did say the away end needs to flattened down a bit due to it being rolled up in the tube
2 of the floodlights are out but hopeful of an early k/o, Both teams have arrived safely and warming up as we speak crowd isnt brilliant would estimate 5 so far but the bar is open and plenty of turkey sandwiches to go round

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

I'm taking it that (understandably) the decision was made by Clive P. and the City groundstaff, thus preventing the officials (who would have needed to be paid) and the Swindon team from setting out.

I always thought it was the referee who called a game off.......

 

[PeteUSA]

They did...They definitely had a plastic pitch when i visited Deepdale in 1986-87

Quite right Olds, Preston had a plastic pitch for a couple of seasons but I thought it was at least a decade earlier than the time you recall. QPR was another one, and Luton rings a bell, but I could be wrong.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Quite right Olds, Preston had a plastic pitch for a couple of seasons but I thought it was at least a decade earlier than the time you recall. QPR was another one, and Luton rings a bell, but I could be wrong.

QPR had the first plastic pitch,followed by Luton & Preston iirc.....The FL outlawed them in the mid 1990's..

 

[Hants_red]

The Shots are still playing according to the bbc website,Paul...

That's a long way from Exmouth!

 

[ramone]

Bournemouth off aswell now

 

[Antony Moxey]

A weekday evening will not produce anywhere near the same gate as Boxing Day would have.

Are you sure? With the weather as extreme as it is at present, I suspect that would have put an awful lot off, plus these days I'd suggest we don't have as many people just turn up on the day like they used to, both because of games' preium status and that it costs more to pay on the day.

The Sheffield Wednesday game was down quite significantly IMO on what we should have been expecting for such a game - I'd say as many as 2000 or more - and could see the same for today. The ground and surrounding area might have been cleared - and what a superb effort that was by all those who hleped out - go a few hundred yards further afield and it's like a bloody ice rink with only the main roads cleared.

An terms of purely crowd numbers, this is probably the best thing that could have happened.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Quite right Olds, Preston had a plastic pitch for a couple of seasons but I thought it was at least a decade earlier than the time you recall.

That was the first season they had it Pete...The previous visit to Deepdale at the end of 85-86 season.It was a grass pitch..Preston had dropped a long way in those days.They ended up in the re-election zone with the Grecians at the seasons end..

 

[PeteUSA]

I always thought it was the referee who called a game off.......

Seriously, that was the case in my day, but I think thats changed now since many referee's used to insist on travelling a long distance so that that they could pick up expenses etc. even though they had been forwarned that the game could never happen!

Obviously nobody knows yet what the postponement sequence of events were, but I would hope the decision was taken by City's own groundstaff, who would know better than anyone else whether a game of football could be played. That being said, I'd be interested to know why that decision was made, since there is no local referee qualified enough who could be called in to declare the pitch unfit.