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Southend fans call for change and say travelling fans must be more carefully considered

Southend fans call for change and say travelling fans must be more carefully considered after the recent abandonment at Rochdale.

The Shrimpers Trust described the situation of ‘two wasted trips’ to Rochdale’s Crown Oil Arena as “unacceptable”, calling for earlier postponement decisions (even if overly cautious), better communication for away fans, and centralised risk assessment.

They also urged football bodies to mandate minimum notice periods based on travel distance, investigate climate-related abandonments, and fund pitch improvements.

And lastly, they requested Rochdale to provide goodwill gestures like ticket refunds/discounts or subsidised coach travel for fans.

SHRIMPERS TRUST STATEMENT:

“It’s happened again”

Travelling Southend United supporters have made the long trek to Rochdale twice this season and are still yet to see a game of football completed. At this or any level, this is unacceptable.

We appreciate the fact that Rochdale gets more rainfall on average than many other locations, and that a lot of effort was put into getting both fixtures on, but postponement decisions need to be made earlier, even if it results in an overly-cautious approach.

To postpone the original fixture less than two and a half hours before kick-off, when most Southend fans had already arrived or were most of the way there, and to then allow the rearranged fixture to even start, is just not good enough. Everybody was aware of the poor weather forecast for both fixtures, and Rochdale would have been all too aware of how quickly the pitch would deteriorate once the covers had to be removed an hour two before kick-off. This balance of risk needs centralised support, to save supporters time and money and to allow for safer travel.

Away fans need to be more carefully considered across the pyramid, and receive better communication. Travelling across the country to support your team isn’t cheap, especially in the run-up to Christmas, and especially when a wasted journey is made twice. We urge all relevant football bodies (FSA, Premier League, EFL, National League, Football Association and Independent Football Regulator) to look into a minimum time requirement for postponement, linked to the length of the journey time for away fans. Whilst this may not mitigate for hotels or train tickets, it will save wasted journeys and reduce time and cost burdens on supporters. We have had discussions with our counterparts at the Dale Trust and we empathise with their position. This affects them too. As with the neighbouring game in Blackburn, extreme weather is becoming more the norm and many pitches simply cannot cope.

We urge all relevant football bodies to look at ways of resourcing clubs across the pyramid to improve their pitch facilities and equipment. This is not going away. We would like to see an inquiry into the potential mechanisms around climate-related postponements and abandonments at a National League level.

We’d like to call on Rochdale to consider a gesture of goodwill to travelling Southend United supporters for the rearranged fixture, perhaps by offering match ticket discounts or by subsidising coach travel. We also request that they offer immediate match ticket refunds to anybody would like one, rather than waiting until after the rearranged game has taken place to process them.

We will follow Southend, whatever the weather, but we feel that this ongoing situation needs urgent support from those in charge of the game.

Southend United head coach Kevin Maher said after the abandoned fixture: “The only thing is that at 2-1 obviously they want to keep playing and we’re not that bothered, if it was the other way around, it’d be the same of course.

“I’ve got to give credit to the grounds staff here who did everything they could to get the game on. We knew it was going to rain, we knew it was going to come, and the referee before the game even said it was in the hands of the gods in terms of the weather.

“Seeing the state of it now, there was no chance. What you’ve got to do is call it earlier, at 1-1 or even at half-time, and when you make a decision stick to it because it wasn’t going to get any better with it still raining, so it became a farce really.

“In terms of the game I thought we started ever so well, got the very good goal, and our shape was really good. But then there’s goals that have come from conditions and it just became silly really.”

Maher said that the referee had no other choice but to abandon the game: “There’s no chance, the ball’s not going anywhere, the goals have come from it, and the rain is still coming.”

“It’s just a shame for everyone and our fans who have travelled up again in huge numbers and were making a great noise. For large parts of it we were leading the game and playing ever so well, but it’s the right decision that should have been made earlier to stop any controversy.”

Rochdale boss Jimmy McNulty said, per Echo News: “Turning a blind eye to our pitch for a number of years has come home to roost today,” the Rochdale boss told the club’s YouTube channel.

“I have to be honest and that’s how I feel.

“The new owners don’t turn a blind eye to anything and they are moving this project forward at the highest right of acceleration possible to them across the board.

“They’ve been top but there’s been years of knowing there’s a major problem going on out there and thinking ‘lets not do anything about it, let’s just hope the cloud goes that way instead of this way’.

“That’s never going to happen in Rochdale and that could have been a very big three points for us today.”

“I’m still in a bit of shock over the sequence of events which unfolded although I shouldn’t be because as the Rochdale manager this is the car-crash of football management I’ve been exposed to in my time here.

“I spoke to someone earlier and in jest said I feel like I’ve managed about 20 clubs because of the amount of stuff we’ve gone through during my tenure.

“It’s unbelievable and today, in the end our pitch has cost us what I believe is three points in a game we were the better team in and were in the ascendancy.

“I thought we were the better team throughout it other than some territory that Southend developed towards the end of the first half.

“That led to some throw ins and corners which is what they do but we were the better team on what was a very challenging day to try and play a perfect game.”

He added that his side have played through similar conditions in recent seasons: “I’m mixed because we’ve played those games before here this season and in previous seasons.

“Solihull at home last season, Man United in the National League Cup was the same scenario and circumstances.

“It’s literally down to an opinion of a referee whether the game can continue regardless of what my opinion is on whether any of those games should or shouldn’t have continued.

“It was a strange day and the postponement, abandonment, suspensions for 10 minute periods trying to get the game on became a bit of sideshow for the whole stadium.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Twitter users reacted after Southend fans call for change and say travelling fans must be more carefully considered…

@HughJanus1980: How fucking embarrassing is this… you really don’t speak for me

@jon_38dale: Forgot you were all forced to travel.

@RochdaleFan: You are having a laugh aren’t you? 🤣 Not a chance should we be giving you any goodwill gestures, after how your players and manager acted to get the game abandoned as soon as you went 2-1 down.

@dylan_rafc: i’d also like to say that it’s a CHOICE to come up, if they looked at the forecast and seen it’s going to likely be called off at any point then why even come? i get it’s annoying for them and we’d feel the same but it’s not down to the club to compensate for a decision they make

@Dave1822UK: Pretty much everyone in that away end was cheering and jumping up and down when the game got suspended and then abandoned, so don’t claim to be upset on here. 🤣

@dolan21sha: You are having a laugh the game was fine until you went 2-1 down didn’t see any of your fans moaning when u was winning 0-1, also why should Rochdale give anything to the fans? The ref called it off nothing to do with Rochdale u could see the players and staff wanted it on. So at the same time on the same day at the same minute Blackburn got called off so what about the away fans there should they get free travel when there’s nothing the club can do with the weather and no one made your fans come up they choose to come up to the game

@kelvinfinan: Biggest fannies in football this lot. Thanks for your money and please feel free to spend some more in the rearranged fixture to help with our the cost of our new pitch 😘

@JakeDale90: Hahaha wow. A fans trust or a trade union? Would you also like your time back as paid? This is absolutely well out of your lane. Your own manager went on the bbc and said “he wasn’t bothered” the game was called off as soon as you were losing. Get a grip 😂😂

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