Swindon Town Match Thread - Page 4

ferret man · 09-12-2017, 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Stiffupperlip

The whole country has suffered with Arctic weather for the last week, some places having suffered much worse than East Lancashire.
Yet from the 53 games in England today, including the National league, only 3 were postponed.
Even most Scottish league games were played, only 4 from 17 being postponed.
We can blame the ref all we want, but the real culprit is the club for making no effort to protect the pitch.
Do they never watch the weather forecast?

So you KNOW that the ground staff did nothing to protect the pitch.

AccyMad · 09-12-2017, 22:15

To my mind it's not so much the actual postponement but the timing & the poor communication from the club that's got people's backs up - on the twitter feed this morning it stated that the pitch had been inspected & it was declared fit to play, after the second inspection at lunchtime we were then told the game was off as the pitch had deteriorated due to the snow that had come down during the morning, well I'm sorry but that just does not add up. It couldn't possibly have deteriorated that much in a couple of hours, either the first inspection was not thorough enough or we weren't told the true state of the pitch at 10.30 & I think everybody, Swindon fans included, deserve to know exactly what happened.

Lord Stiffupperlip · 09-12-2017, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferret man

So you KNOW that the ground staff did nothing to protect the pitch.

I quote from Mabs earlier @ASFCofficial post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mab

@ASFCofficial
UPDATE: As a precaution we have covered areas of the pitch that do not get sunlight.
There are currently no plans for a pitch inspection and we expect tomorrow's game with @Official_STFC to go ahead.

Bearing in mind the predicted sub zero temperatures, covering only a small part of the pitch seems illogical.
In any event, whatever effort was made proved completely inadequate.
But then again, you've convinced me - IT WAS ALL THE REF'S FAULT!

dabeast · 09-12-2017, 22:37

Buzzer:

Ref turns up at 10 am says can't envisage a problem ...you need to change who you get your Information from !!

Andy:
Wrong. Ref inspects at 10.30am says it on. At 1.30pm inspects and says it is frozen. https://t.co/bzKCh10wjS

Answering to someone who suggested similar to some on here.

monkey hanger · 10-12-2017, 09:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

I agree, its in the main down to another useless official, but someone actually knew at the club what was said about the pitch at 10-30, yet sod all AGAIN was said to the fans at that time, and that to me aint good enough.

thats what its actually all about in a nutshell. if there was a doubt about some areas of the pitch at 10.30 with the forecast of temperatures and snow then the game should have been called off then. plus being told about 11 ish it was on was stretching the truth more than a little as it was not. the word fan at times means mug who seem to have to accept everything thrown at em.

cashman · 10-12-2017, 09:13

The fact is from 10-00 until after 2-00 the temperature was 2 to 3 degrees warmer, ok we had a light covering of snow in that period, so the bullshine spouted dont fool anyone with at least 1 braincell.

dabeast · 10-12-2017, 09:32

So what should THE CLUB have done differently after the 1030 inspection?

cashman · 10-12-2017, 09:49

Thats obvious, tell the fans what the ref had said, NOT just a bit of it.

many then would not have wasted hard earned money setting off.

andyd · 10-12-2017, 10:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Stiffupperlip

I quote from Mabs earlier @ASFCofficial post.

Bearing in mind the predicted sub zero temperatures, covering only a small part of the pitch seems illogical.
In any event, whatever effort was made proved completely inadequate.
But then again, you've convinced me - IT WAS ALL THE REF'S FAULT!

The big worry is it was,nt particulary that cold Friday night 0 to -1 at the most with a colder winter predicted this year how many more games could we lose and I have to agree why wasn't the whole pitch covered?

Lord Didsbury · 10-12-2017, 10:26

Having read all this, my opinion:
1. It would have been far better to relay everything the ref said at 10:30am so people can make their own minds up about whether to risk travelling or not
2. What would be even better than that is to have called it off at 10:30 if there was any doubt at all because a lot of fans were travelling from so far away. It's by far the lesser of two evils.

Great results elsewhere though!

cashman · 10-12-2017, 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Didsbury

Having read all this, my opinion:
1. It would have been far better to relay everything the ref said at 10:30am so people can make their own minds up about whether to risk travelling or not
2. What would be even better than that is to have called it off at 10:30 if there was any doubt at all because a lot of fans were travelling from so far away. It's by far the lesser of two evils.

Great results elsewhere though!

Only trouble wi that LordD, its good old fashioned common sense, a thing thats always been sadly lacking by some of those who SHOULD know better.

choirboy · 10-12-2017, 12:03

Eee by gum.....!
It's not like in t'owd days when we played in all sorts of conditions!
In Saturday's conditions we would have had lines painted blue and played with an orange ball and worn boots with moulded rubber studs! Which was a bit like playing on the early hard artificial pitches used in the late 20th century. We also used common sense as players and tried to stay on our feet and not slide into tackles but of course Pro's can't play like that as the pressure now is to win at all costs!

I live locally so I saw the news after 1pm but I do agree that it is the dedicated travelling supporters that suffered unnecessary expense and a waste of a day. Both those from Swindon and Stanley fans who travel from distance too.

It would seem to be the case that the Referee should have called it off at 10am and that the club should have used all possible methods of communicating that to the supporters as quickly as possible in order to save them wasting money and time travelling!

Twenty Eight · 10-12-2017, 12:12

Took a detour to Oldham - pitch bang on.
Decent game Richie Wellens got them going.
Matt Crooks a shadow of his former self.

monkey hanger · 10-12-2017, 12:37

[QUOTE=choirboy;

I live locally so I saw the news after 1pm but I do agree that it is the dedicated travelling supporters that suffered unnecessary expense and a waste of a day. [COLOR="red"]Both those from Swindon and Stanley fans who travel from distance too.[/COLOR]

think the club had a hope of a miracle of biblical proportions to get the game on after the 10.30 inspection and we were not told the whole truth. do not mind wasting a gallon of diesel but i did mind wasting a day. probably frightened we might have gone elsewhere and enjoyed it.

Lord Didsbury · 10-12-2017, 13:05

Andy Holt has spent the last 24 hours tweeting massively about the game being called off. Generally he talks very good sense (in my opinion) on how things should be addressed in the event of bad weather. He is doing a great job engaging with both sets of fans.

He seems the clearly believe that he knew nothing about the prospect of a second pitch inspection after the first one. If no one at the club (in a senior enough position) knew there was a possibility of a second inspection then the club is completely blameless for any lack of communication.

Finally, undersoil heating is out of the question (financially), and attempts to keep the pitch protected with sheets and other methods are always going to be hit and miss I'd have thought. So really the only solution is in a better system for deciding what happens when inspections are called for. That's the reality of division 2 budgets and uk weather.