Grounds Man Suspended


THE LARK SAINT
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Of course it was on.

Remember its UNDERsoil heating. It heats from the ground up. The sun helped clear the small amount of ground frost on the pitch but because of the shadow the ormond stand casts the sun didn't get to it. This post on P&B describes it perfectly...

http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php/topic/123973-st-johnstone-v-rangers-200210/page__view__findpost__p__4258778

Cheers for the link that was a really good read.

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Del mentions in the BBC article about the SPL delegate being there but not being too worried.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/8525381.stm

So the SPL have to take their share of the blame.

Yes cos when we arrived at 12.15 you could clearly see the frozen area from outside the stadium. I thought someone might have pointed out to the SPL delegate that the sun wouldn't reach that area by 12.45 or perhaps he should've realised that himself.

Edited by Scott1884
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Of course it was on.

Remember its UNDERsoil heating. It heats from the ground up. The sun helped clear the small amount of ground frost on the pitch but because of the shadow the ormond stand casts the sun didn't get to it. This post on P&B describes it perfectly...

http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php/topic/123973-st-johnstone-v-rangers-200210/page__view__findpost__p__4258778

If it is as clear as you say Hinest then I am surprised that this action has been taken.

The groundsman on P&B reckons it is down to cost that the majority of the surfaces are sand based. There was an article in the sunday mail stating that the mixture is sand based to allow better drainage and the mix of sand and soil is lab tested. I know in Clackmanaanshire we have problems with all of the pitches except for one which was explained by the Council as being sue to it being a sand based surface instead of the soil based surfaces in the other public parks.

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The more I think about this (the rumoured sacking) the more upset I get. Even if the guy has made a mistake and I am not saying he has then it should not cost him his job. Warning or written warning maybe no more. This is of course dependant on this being a first time error.

There is also the fact that more than one person must be culpable for the game not being cancelled earlier. Surely someone else walked on the pitch before the referee put the game off. Well I know they did but no one thought there was a problem.

I am certainly thinking about writing to the club let them know how I feel.

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The more I think about this (the rumoured sacking) the more upset I get. Even if the guy has made a mistake and I am not saying he has then it should not cost him his job. Warning or written warning maybe no more. This is of course dependant on this being a first time error.

There is also the fact that more than one person must be culpable for the game not being cancelled earlier. Surely someone else walked on the pitch before the referee put the game off. Well I know they did but no one thought there was a problem.

I am certainly thinking about writing to the club let them know how I feel.

Write to the Club about what? Nothing has officially happenned and until you get an official statement you would be best just waiting until you know all of the facts and exactly what action the Club is or is not taking.

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I can confirm that Chris Smith has been suspended. This is 100% accurate . I have no further information and have not and will not ask my source any futher questions due to the nature of this issue..

Can't say I am happy about it but until such time as any further action is taken one way or another I feel it would be wrong to comment further..

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Write to the Club about what? Nothing has officially happenned and until you get an official statement you would be best just waiting until you know all of the facts and exactly what action the Club is or is not taking.

Just because you ahven't heard doesn't mean that nothing official has happened. There is nothing wrong with writing to seek explanation and expressing feelings on the information held. The club can then clarify or chose not to. That's their prerogative. The facts will probably never come out because their will be different views and possibly a legal process. It is a bit about showing some support. Comrades and all that :laugh:

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I can confirm that Chris Smith has been suspended. This is 100% accurate . I have no further information and have not and will not ask my source any futher questions due to the nature of this issue..

Can't say I am happy about it but until such time as any further action is taken one way or another I feel it would be wrong to comment further..

The club defintely wont comment then.

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I can confirm that Chris Smith has been suspended. This is 100% accurate . I have no further information and have not and will not ask my source any futher questions due to the nature of this issue..

Can't say I am happy about it but until such time as any further action is taken one way or another I feel it would be wrong to comment further..

Spot on Ghostie.

Hope everyone sticks to that position.

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(Hopefully this will still be relevant after the 15/20 mins of editing and adding things to the below post)

Whilst not a pleasent situation it is fairly common place that a member of staff directly involved (and yes I realise there is more than one person involved in the getting a game ready) in a situation that has gone badly wrong be suspended pending an investigation - usually when there is a good chance that they had not done something right. This is not to say they won't be reinstated to their position if found to be in the right.

I really can't see Saints sacking him unless it was directly his fault, or suspending him unless there was significant doubt he was unfortunately in part to blame. It would be incredibly poor judgement and certainly not do any favours for the reputation of the club if they did this. Lets not forget that with the O'Boyle / Thomas sacking issue they took Saints to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal which dragged on for long enough and was a bit of a mess. I don't think they would want to risk going down this route once again. You can't also get away with sacking a groundsman now and then later in the year decide to replace a USH system that was deemed working at the time without people becoming very suspicious of the club making the groundsman a scapegoat to avoid possible punishment for having a malfunctioning USH system.

It will be of less harm to the club if they in addition to the statement made saturday say that a fault has been found (if one exists) and hold their hands up that the lack of communication was a mistake and they are going to do x,y,z to improve the situation and publically state the groundstaff did all they could etc etc.

Hopefully in the keeping of the "family club" ideal they take thier time with this one and don't give into the pressure of the west coast press / **** / bain etc.

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The SFA or whoever could still have asked that the game be played at 3pm.......why was this option never considered ?

If Sky couldnt cover it then tough.

I doubt very much if the police would have allowed 5,000 rangers fans to hang around Perth for an extra 2-3 hours prior to the game being played. That would have been asking for trouble.

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I doubt very much if the police would have allowed 5,000 rangers fans to hang around Perth for an extra 2-3 hours prior to the game being played. That would have been asking for trouble.

very true! the fact we are talking about this im sure the board will get wiff and might be reluctant in sacking him,non?

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Look far too many people on the Rangers thread implied this was the fault of the club! The club is not Geoff Brown and Stewart Duff alone, they appoint people who are experts or skilled in their area. These same people who criticised the club should know members of the board and accounts/admin don't look after the pitch, they request advice on the pitch, they can only employ people to do that. Rangers FC and some Saints supporters on here can't get all worked up into a frenzy then not expect something like this to happen. He will be suspended until after the inquiry. The view is that the pitch would be OK and things proceeded. Hysteria is the modern world and Gordon Brown is obviouysly a bully, he beats up civil servants and cabinet ministers all the time and hangs them upside down. :laugh: Quite right too.

Bring back the days when if a game was postponed we said "Shit!" and were totally disappointed, and just got on with things. Now it's overboard. The QOS fans must have been more annoyed than the Rangers fans, they travelled the length of the country to Inverness.

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Chris and his family deserve better than having a few ill-educated and ignorant forumers discussing his current situation. The club have made no statement, Chris will not make any public statement and frankly it's shabby to discuss him as if he doesn't read this forum. I am all for freedom of speech, but it's wrong to tittle tattle about someone in this fashion. I hope the mods lock the thread out of respect for a man who has shown a genuine committment to Saints. Reacting with hot blood is never a smart idea. Let's step away from the coal face and have a wee think.

Edit: Just spotted Jamie's excellent words from another thread.

Reopened the thread and merged them together. Can't see why it was closed - working on the assumption someone hit the close button by accident, which as I said, is surprisingly easy to do.

What I would say is that in this type of thread, where you are discussing someone from the area (dead or alive), is don't write anything that you wouldn't willingly say to their (or their relatives') face. Lots of people who are not active registered users - or even registered at all - use this forum and I wouldn't like to have to field complaints from people whose family - or even themselves - have had stuff that may or may not be true written about them.

Not that there appears to be any issue in this thread, its just a general note.

Edited by 101 Saint
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Agree with 101. We shouldn't be discussing a man's livelihood here. Fair enough a manager or player as by the nature of their position they are in the public eye. The guy was doing his job the best he could and the fact the Hibs game was on would suggest the system is at fault.

I'm sure at least one of us will make an error of judgement at work this week. Would you like it it being an open topic ? Whatever the club do should have remained behind closed doors.

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This is outrageous!

Let's all email/phone the club and tell them what we think!!

Yeah, because we're far more informed that the club and we should certainly react to allegations and speculation from this reliable fount of knowledge.

This thread is cringeworthy, shut it down out of decency and respect.

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I agree. We should not be speculating on the guy's livelihood on here.

I suppose the fact he has been suspended and not sacked is a relief. Hopefully the investigation will find he has done everything within his powers to get the game on and Chris will be back doing his job shortly. Fingers crossed anyway:cool:

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I'm not really entirely sure what to do with this thread. It is something that is up for discussion - but I would like to reiterate what I said in another thread, that 101 has kindly posted above. Don't say anything you wouldn't want to say to Chris Smith's face, and bear in mind his friends/family and possibly even Chris himself may read this site.

Also, the idea of bombarding the club with emails/phone calls seems mad to me - none of us really have the inside scoop on this, and clearly Saints wouldn't have done this without good reason. Allow this investigation to run its course and see where we are at that stage.

Would appreciate it if we could all calm down a bit so that I don't have to wave my deletion-stick around too much...

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