Coleman: Ref hasn’t given it every chance

JOHN Coleman has today slammed Graham Laws’ decision to call off last nights match at the Fraser Eagle Stadium between Accrington Stanley and Port Vale because of a ‘waterlogged pitch’.

The game was the FIFTH this season to be cancelled because of the poor state of the pitch after bad weather, and heavy rain on Tuesday saw one goal area start to accumilate a large puddle, but Coleman believes it could have been cleared in time.

Coleman told the Lancashire Telegraph: ‘I don’t think it was given enough time. Any water on our pitch goes when it stops raining.

‘The ball stopped in one part, probably a six-by-six puddle, and I think they could have worked on that before kick-off.

‘I said to the referee you should have been the referee when we got beaten 8-2 by Peterborough (last season) because it was like a swimming pool.’

But the Stanley gaffer believes that Port Vale had a big impact in the game being called off as he claimed that they didn’t want to play the game and looked for any excuses. And the referee certainly helped them there, claiming that the ball wouldn’t role freely.

Coleman continued: ‘Port Vale are governed by the ref and they were thinking that the ball has stopped. But the ball has stopped in one place because the referee has not given it every chance, because he is rolling it slowly.’



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