A pretty embarrassing situation

Hoppo

Hoppo

Well-known member
Whichever way you look at it, if the Groundsman had covers and lights at his disposal (which he did), for tonight’s game to be called off when the Cods game went ahead is pretty embarrassing, If the O’s were in charge fans would be shouting from the rooftops.

No point blaming the Ref or Burton because the fact is there shouldn’t have been one area of that pitch after having a day to work on it (with temperatures most of the day above freezing) which should have given anyone a chance to question whether it was playable.

Sorry - this was of our own doing and some questions need to be asked.
 
Hoppo said:
Whichever way you look at it, if the Groundsman had covers and lights at his disposal (which he did), for tonight’s game to be called off when the Cods game went ahead is pretty embarrassing, If the O’s were in charge fans would be shouting from the rooftops.

No point blaming the Ref or Burton because the fact is there shouldn’t have been one area of that pitch after having a day to work on it (with temperatures most of the day above freezing) which should have given anyone a chance to question whether it was playable.

Sorry - this was of our own doing and some questions need to be asked.
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I said the same if they were still in charge the uproar would be mighty
 
Hoppo said:
Whichever way you look at it, if the Groundsman had covers and lights at his disposal (which he did), for tonight’s game to be called off when the Cods game went ahead is pretty embarrassing, If the O’s were in charge fans would be shouting from the rooftops.

No point blaming the Ref or Burton because the fact is there shouldn’t have been one area of that pitch after having a day to work on it (with temperatures most of the day above freezing) which should have given anyone a chance to question whether it was playable.

Sorry - this was of our own doing and some questions need to be asked.
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Were still the poor relations.
 
I've said the same thing, you can try and pin the blame on the ref or Burton, but there has been enough for the ref to make the call. Our pitch should not be giving any doubt as to whether it's playable when Fleetwood are going ahead. It's really poor.

We're now in a situation where we are going to get to mid February having played just ten home games, the lowest in the division and five games fewer than some clubs.
 
Hoppo said:
Whichever way you look at it, if the Groundsman had covers and lights at his disposal (which he did), for tonight’s game to be called off when the Cods game went ahead is pretty embarrassing, If the O’s were in charge fans would be shouting from the rooftops.

No point blaming the Ref or Burton because the fact is there shouldn’t have been one area of that pitch after having a day to work on it (with temperatures most of the day above freezing) which should have given anyone a chance to question whether it was playable.

Sorry - this was of our own doing and some questions need to be asked.
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Burton bottled it again and complained to ref it was dangerous.
 
If both teams had wanted to play the game would have gone ahead. I assume both teams at Fleetwood, Accrington and Rochdale wanted to play. One team at Bloomfield Road didn't want to play and that puts massive pressure on the referee as he will be thinking about the Burton Albion report to the EFL and what it will say, especially if one of the players ended up getting injured.
 
bollieboy said:
If both teams had wanted to play the game would have gone ahead. I assume both teams at Fleetwood, Accrington and Rochdale wanted to play. One team at Bloomfield Road didn't want to play and that puts massive pressure on the referee as he will be thinking about the Burton Albion report to the EFL and what it will say, especially if one of the players ended up getting injured.
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Do you actually know that for a fact?
 
Bring Back Standing said:
Let's hear what Critch has to say.
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He said something like 'at the end of the day, it's a game of two halves, the lads were raring to go, no easy games in this division, we prepared well but the ref made his decision'

There was a bit of a sense to be fair he wasn't best chuffed, but he's far to professional and reasoned to say anything about it explicitly.
 
Hoppo said:
Whichever way you look at it, if the Groundsman had covers and lights at his disposal (which he did), for tonight’s game to be called off when the Cods game went ahead is pretty embarrassing, If the O’s were in charge fans would be shouting from the rooftops.

No point blaming the Ref or Burton because the fact is there shouldn’t have been one area of that pitch after having a day to work on it (with temperatures most of the day above freezing) which should have given anyone a chance to question whether it was playable.

Sorry - this was of our own doing and some questions need to be asked.
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Fleetwood is a much smaller stadium therefore gets more direct sunlight onto their pitch compared to ours so thaws out much quicker. I bet any frozen parts of our pitch were in the south west corner where it gets no direct sunlight. Also are those lights heat lamps or just light lamps to help the grass grow? Has someone watered the pitch perhaps? SD meeting on the 22nd so we can ask then.
 
King Billy said:
Do you actually know that for a fact?
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A player slips and potentially ends his career serious spotlight on the ref these days. If both teams wanted to play we would of played. Did you see the games in the people’s republic of Yorkshire tonight on sky? Far far worse than our pitch and conditions.
 
koudo said:
Fleetwood is a much smaller stadium therefore gets more direct sunlight onto their pitch compared to ours so thaws out much quicker. I bet any frozen parts of our pitch were in the south west corner where it gets no direct sunlight. Also are those lights heat lamps or just light lamps to help the grass grow? Has someone watered the pitch perhaps? SD meeting on the 22nd so we can ask then.
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The area of the pitch the ref was concentrating on and showing representatives from both clubs was just outside the centre circle so will be nothing to do with the lack of sunlight.

People saying Burton didn't want the game playing but if part of the pitch wasn't frozen they wouldn't have been able to complain about it, agree with the OP, really poor having the game called off.
 
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koudo said:
Fleetwood is a much smaller stadium therefore gets more direct sunlight onto their pitch compared to ours so thaws out much quicker. I bet any frozen parts of our pitch were in the south west corner where it gets no direct sunlight. Also are those lights heat lamps or just light lamps to help the grass grow? Has someone watered the pitch perhaps? SD meeting on the 22nd so we can ask then.
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Yeah, there was blistering heat from the sun today. 😉
 
Ooh look! A stick to beat the club with!! And look how the pack has descended on it and are fighting over it.

It is ** freezing out there, minus 8 here tonight. We are still in the legacy of the Stains, SS has a huge task to bring this club up to scratch and I dread to think how much he has spent out already and how much he is going to in the future. I am sure the pitch protection is on his to-do list, but that list is going to be pretty long considering the state of ruin the club was left in after decades of neglect.

I despair at this place sometimes. When you've all finished waving your todgers at the club maybe you can consider what a total load of bollocks you are all talking.
 
I’ll wait to hear what the ground staff say before hanging them out to dry. Not a few weeks ago they pulled a 48 hour plus shift to ensure the pitch was fit to play on. And the pitch quality has been much improved since they joined. So I don’t doubt their dedication at all.

Equally Burton may or may not have wanted to play, and grabbed an opportunity to skip the game. Or the call may have been entirely the ref overruling everyone because he didn’t fancy it.

I’d rather hear all sides before condemning anyone.
 
Postponed twice in a week isn’t good - any team has the right to complain about the conditions but it seems disappointing to travel all that way have the game ON

still, gives our missing players more to heal
 
HighfieldSeasider said:
The area of the pitch the ref was concentrating on and showing representatives from both clubs was just outside the centre circle so will be nothing to do with the lack of sunlight.

People saying Burton didn't want the game playing but if part of the pitch wasn't frozen they wouldn't have been able to complain about it, agree with the OP, really poor having the he called off.
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I very much doubt the sunlight would have even got to the centre circle tbh, the sun is too low down. Look at teams who played further inland where you would expect colder temperatures, they all have small stadiums compared to ours. Only takes 1 degree of difference for water to freeze. I think we have just been unlucky. It's just so frustrating our games against teams we'd expect to beat getting called off and then we play either someone bang in form like Shrewsbury/Bristol Rovers or someone in the top 6. Oh well, more important things in life to worry about tbh.
 
As Ping Pong says, the temperature was zero degrees at 6:55 when the game was called off, the same as when the pitch was deemed playable less than an hour earlier, it didn't actually drop to -1 until after 9pm..... something has happened in that time, skulduggery at play? 😬
 
The match should have been at the earlier time of 5pm. Would have gone ahead then. Long range forecasts are available. I can tell you the expected temp at 7pm Tues 23rd Feb is 6’C.

Failing that, why not take the covers off at 6pm and arrange the inspection for 6.30?

Burton were looking for an excuse and we gave it them. NC is a bit too soft / nicey nicey. Ref was clearly a bottler.

Hope we are back to full strength for the re-re-arranged fixture and stuff them 6-0. 😁
 
So Yates trys turning his marker and slips on that bad part of the pitch and sustained a serious injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season. Players slipping at the wrong moments and finding ourselfs having lost the game 2-0. Bet we'd be screaming blue murder the game should have not been played and the referee was clueless.
 
HighfieldSeasider said:
As Ping Pong says, the temperature was zero degrees at 6:55 when the game was called off, the same as when the pitch was deemed playable less than an hour earlier, it didn't actually drop to -1 until after 9pm..... something has happened in that time, skulduggery at play? 😬
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minus 2 when I checked just after 7pm. And I know this because I've been worried about the baby chicks outside in the coop, I mean Mrs Koudo was worried and made me check. Also broke the ice on my pond three times today as it reformed so it's been at least zero during the day. IMO it's just not thawed from last night and not enough sunlight getting over the stands hasn't helped.
 
Koudo, we have ground staff and equipment to easily rectify this.
And many times over the years we have played in sub-zero temperatures, just like all the other clubs in our division did tonight.

Hasselbank didnt fancy it, and the ref bottled it.
Would the game have been called off if the fans were in the stadium? No chance!
 
Nothing embarrassing at all!
A few other games got cancelled at short notice tonight and one was abandoned
Should they be embarrassed as well.
And what questions need to be asked?

Will the sun be out tomorrow?
Will the temperature get above freezing by Saturday?
Will the groundsman be getting sacked?

Poor o/p IMO
 
bollieboy said:
If both teams had wanted to play the game would have gone ahead. I assume both teams at Fleetwood, Accrington and Rochdale wanted to play. One team at Bloomfield Road didn't want to play and that puts massive pressure on the referee as he will be thinking about the Burton Albion report to the EFL and what it will say, especially if one of the players ended up getting injured.
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My thoughts exactly
 
Outrage, it's all the rage. There are regular outbursts of outrage on here and it's nearly always a complete load of bollocks!

A football match got called off. Temperatures sub zero. Big deal really in the grand scheme eh? Is lockdown magnifying things and driving everyone insane? No, it was like this before Covid too.

Is it down to mental health issues do we think? Is it modern life? Have we lost all perspective? Are we all spiritually lost and anxious and need something to rant about?!

What's going on?! 🤣
 
koudo said:
minus 2 when I checked just after 7pm. And I know this because I've been worried about the baby chicks outside in the coop, I mean Mrs Koudo was worried and made me check. Also broke the ice on my pond three times today as it reformed so it's been at least zero during the day. IMO it's just not thawed from last night and not enough sunlight getting over the stands hasn't helped.
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Quite. How many big stand roofs does the sun have to rise above at Fleetwood?
 
Wonder if it is anything to do with the sprinklers and their location. They do occasionally go off unannounced during games.
A leaky one could go unnoticed?
 
hertfordseasider said:
Ooh look! A stick to beat the club with!! And look how the pack has descended on it and are fighting over it.

It is ** freezing out there, minus 8 here tonight. We are still in the legacy of the Stains, SS has a huge task to bring this club up to scratch and I dread to think how much he has spent out already and how much he is going to in the future. I am sure the pitch protection is on his to-do list, but that list is going to be pretty long considering the state of ruin the club was left in after decades of neglect.

I despair at this place sometimes. When you've all finished waving your todgers at the club maybe you can consider what a total load of bollocks you are all talking.
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You can't help yourself can you? Do you get off on persistent insulting of fellow supporters? You just rinse and repeat the same hugely generalistic "give your heads a wobble, I despair this site" shite every time you post.

If you despair it that much other sites more benign and happy clappy are available.
 
voyeur said:
Outrage, it's all the rage. There are regular outbursts of outrage on here and it's nearly always a complete load of bollocks!

A football match got called off. Temperatures sub zero. Big deal really in the grand scheme eh? Is lockdown magnifying things and driving everyone insane? No, it was like this before Covid too.

Is it down to mental health issues do we think? Is it modern life? Have we lost all perspective? Are we all spiritually lost and anxious and need something to rant about?!

What's going on?! 🤣
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It's quite upsetting to say, but I think the mental health point really does account for at least some people's issue with the game being off. Since Saturday's defeat, I for one know that I couldn't wait for Tuesday and something to look forward to, for it to be taken away at the time it was supposed to kick off!

Whilst I agree that it's something that we shouldn't be outraged over, it's still rather disappointing.
 
Macseasider said:
You can't help yourself can you? Do you get off on persistent insulting of fellow supporters? You just rinse and repeat the same hugely generalistic "give your heads a wobble, I despair this site" shite every time you post.

If you despair it that much other sites more benign and happy clappy are available.
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How about coming up with your own opinions then Mac instead of turning into my stalker. It looks like a lot of people agree with me too. I know when things are bad, I was one of the very first to recognise what the Oystons were and I know when we are on a good thing. If you enjoy the constant whinging and whining that goes on here then crack on and if you can’t see the double standards and irony in your pathetic retorts to me then that tells me all I need to know. So run along and join in with those of you who like to put down the club at every opportunity and let me get on with believing that after 40 years we have a club that we deserve.
 
Here is how the situation looks:
- The ref assesses the pitch at 6pm and says its fine.
- Burton players/manager complain 10 minutes before kick off.
- The ref begins to go back on his decision.
- Blackpool FC staff/coaches are fighting the corner that the match should be played.
- The ref calls the game off AFTER the match was meant to have started.

Of course none of us were there to check the pitch ourselves, but from the outside the situation looks as if it was up to Blackpool FC the game would have gone ahead, if it was down to Burton it would be called off (which it was). Surely then I think its a fair to wonder why Burton were so adamant, maybe it was an honourable duty to preserve player safety - or maybe it wasn't.

I think this was a case of looking for issues and finding them, a small portion of the pitch was frozen but look at the state of Rochdale's and it went ahead. Our ref just bottled it from the pressure of Burton Albion:

That is the difference in all this, if it was a team that was flying with no excuse for wanting a game off you could believe their qualms but it is bottom of the league Burton with a whole host of reasons you could justify them wanting more time (3 or 4 players who have only been at the club a week, a signing made that very day who wasn't eligible). Apologies to all who think their fellow Blackpool fans are weird for being miffed about this..
 
TangerinePeel said:
Here is how the situation looks:
- The ref assesses the pitch at 6pm and says its fine.
- Burton players/manager complain 10 minutes before kick off.
- The ref begins to go back on his decision.
- Blackpool FC staff/coaches are fighting the corner that the match should be played.
- The ref calls the game off AFTER the match was meant to have started.

Of course none of us were there to check the pitch ourselves, but from the outside the situation looks as if it was up to Blackpool FC the game would have gone ahead, if it was down to Burton it would be called off (which it was). Surely then I think its a fair to wonder why Burton were so adamant, maybe it was an honourable duty to preserve player safety - or maybe it wasn't.

I think this was a case of looking for issues and finding them, a small portion of the pitch was frozen but look at the state of Rochdale's and it went ahead. Our ref just bottled it from the pressure of Burton Albion:

That is the difference in all this, if it was a team that was flying with no excuse for wanting a game off you could believe their qualms but it is bottom of the league Burton with a whole host of reasons you could justify them wanting more time (3 or 4 players who have only been at the club a week, a signing made that very day who wasn't eligible). Apologies to all who think their fellow Blackpool fans are weird for being miffed about this..
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Nail on head. It's not like we were tuning in and the pitch was a frozen tundra either, it looked fine and the part of the pitch that there was a big row over was tiny. The people who are adamant that it's BFC's fault are just as wrong as those who are adamant the pitch was fine. None of us were there so can't say for ourselves, but looking at all the circumstances around the game and the state of other pitches that went ahead, it does seem that Burton just didn't want to play and the ref didn't want to risk trouble after they kicked up a fuss. I still think if there was a crowd there the ref wouldn't have cancelled, I just can't see that happening.

I was fuming last night as I had just started my beer and was ready to watch what I thought would be a good game of football, now with a clearer head it is just a postponed game so nothing to get worked up about. We'll play them at some point and even though they've had time to strengthen their team I'm confident we'll beat them if we're at our best.
 
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