Game off..another one bites the dust!


Jad
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Rain today was relentless so I assume they hadn`t thought there would be a problem until it never stopped raining. I think Tannadump is like McD with a really bad bit in part of the pitch.

according to reports they knew this morning that the game would be off but had to ait for the match ref to put it off at 5.30.

Corner near the changing rooms is bad.

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Not pitch problems Jad, just the sheer volume of water that has hit in the last week, its up to the ref!

Agreed, good to hear your chairman set the record straight on the radio last night. He said the weather in this area has been awful as saints have seen before. Houston saying just because its sunny in glasgow, as it was doesn't mean it is over here. Tayside has seen the worstof the weather in the last couple of months.

Can mind a few seasons back we beat you 1-0 at tannadice where it was lashing down and huge puddles on the pitch, game went ahead and although it was ruined by the weather a Danny Griffin free kick sent the points to perth. The changing rooms flooded that night too.

Ian blair told the bbc that due to non match officials making pitches playable and the match official then calling the games off they want to go with the actual match official to make the call. Willie Collum lives and works in the central belt hence the 5-5.30 inspection.

Moan all you want but we were stung by the local ref calling the pitch playable at falkirk only to be called off later. They want to stop that happening.

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Hamilton Accies are to ask the SPL for £400 compensation to cover the cost of the team bus which was already en route to Tannadice when the game was called off.

When Accies were made aware that there might be a problem with the pitch being waterlogged they put in a request to the SPL for there to be a pitch inspection at 3.30pm. The SPL turned their request down right away.

When is the SPL going to stop pissing on the very life-blood of our beautiful game?:roll:

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The main problem with the early inspections being reversed when the match referee arrives at the ground, is that almost all clubs will be saying that they can get the pitches playable or that the weather will improve etc. What needs to happen is:-

- the match referee should be prepared to be at the ground and have carried out a pitch inspection by the time it would be reasonable to expect the visiting team to travel and arrive at the ground 60-90 minutes before kick off (in Tuesday's case this would be 3 hours before kick off, being 4.45pm, allowing for 2 hours to travel Hamilton to Glasgow. 3 hours would be the norm, with the exception of Inverness/Aberdeen facing the Glasgow teams (say 4 and a half hours) and Edinburgh (say 3 and a half hours).

- if the match referee is unable to do this, then the 4th official should be the next option and, failing that, a local class 1 referee. The problem for Dundee United and Saints is that there is only one in the area and he is from Montrose/Brechin area. In fact I also think Fife is lacking in them as well so it would likely be someone from Edinburgh or Stirling.

- if the pitch is unplayable at all at the designated point in the day, then the match is off. This means that clubs, for the most part, will know by a certain time whether the game is on or off. If there is doubt over the decision, the game must be called off. It doesn't matter if the club can get the game on, they haven't provided a pitch capable of hosting a game of football (whether by their own fault or by natural consequences) at a reasonable time, therefore they should bear the costs.

- should clubs decide to leave early (such as Hamilton did to get to Dundee in order to have a pre-match meal in Dundee) then this is up to them, however it is at their own cost.

I would think this would save supporters a lot of money in knowing that they will know by a set time whether the game is on or off before they would be likely to leave (208 bus aside of course :wink:)

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