I wonder if the referee would like to contribute towards my petrol costs today?
I was inside the ground when the game was called off and am very disappointed with the decision. I was near to the players tunnel as the officials walked off and I did try to ask (politely) why the game was off but the officials just blanked me. After a 120-mile round trip I was very disappointed with that attitude. No blame on the club for any of this, but frankly the football industry sometimes needs a reminder to treat supporters as customers. Also feel very sorry for the Chorley fans, they'd travelled much further than me and their bus arrived around the same time that I did. (There must be something about Boston v Chorley fixtures and wasted journeys - it's not that along ago that a lot of our fans only got as far as the M62 on route to Chorley).
A local referee had apparently passed the pitch as playable earlier in the morning. Having seen the pitch for myself, I'd agree with the local ref in that today's game should have been played. Yes, I know the referee has to think about the safety of the players. But there were no visible icy patches on the pitch, no fog, no snow, etc. Yes, the pitch probably was hard. But is a hard pitch in January any more dangerous than a hard pitch in August on the opening day of the season? And if the game is going to be called off then has to be an earlier cut-off point to prevent people from travelling too far. Also, when exactly did football start being played on bowling greens? I'm sure I've watched matches in years gone by where pitches have been 75% mud, 24% sand and 1% grass.
Boston's weather is no different from surrounding towns, but as far as I can tell we're the only match called off in the immediate area. Again, this seems to suggest that our ref today was in the minority.
We now face the prospect of re-staging the game on a Tuesday night. With a 7:45 kick-off the temperature is bound to be lower than it was this afternoon and you could quite easily now see this descending into another Witton Albion scenario. We'll also get a lower gate in midweek than we would have done on a Saturday so it'll hit the club financially.
You also have to feel sorry for the caterers this afternoon. When this sort of thing happens, what exactly are they supposed to do with all of the pies, pasties and burgers that they've got in and already started cooking?
