Manager James Beattie has said he has got no complaints following yesterday’s game against Bury being postponed.
The game looked good value to go ahead, but heavy rainfall from lunchtime onwards gave the referee a big decision to make, especially as it would be such a late postponement on the day, but after giving the weather fair chance to settle, the man in the middle officially cancelled the game at 2.15pm.
Speaking to the Official Site today, Beattie explained that both he and opposition manager Dave Flitcroft were on board with the decision of the referee, and both had made their feelings known to him when he asked what they thought.
‘I believe the right decision was made. The referee was asking for input and there was standing water on the pitch which is very unusual. The was more rain forecast and it wasn’t a case of the water being in just one place, it was all over the pitch.’
Beattie adds that you could tell how difficult it was going to be when they did some tests to see how the ball rolled, and neither gaffer wanted the game to swing on a mistake and with how waterlogged the pitch was, it would’ve been inviting errors and quite possibly injury.
Beattie does add though that the pitch was magnificent when he took a first look at it, but all involved agreed to give it 20 minutes to see if the water would drain off, but it wasn’t going anywhere, so with more rain on the way ‘the referee took the decision, with the blessing of Dave and myself, to call the game off.’
All eyes to the midweek game against Bristol Rovers now.
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