fbpx
Connect with us

Non League

Statement issued after Woking v Solihull gets postponed an hour before kick-off

A statement has been issued after Woking v Solihull gets postponed an hour before kick-off, leaving many frustrated.

The Cards said the National League fixture was called off on Wednesday night following a pitch inspection carried out by the match official, despite both teams wanting to play.

Woking’s Managing Director, Robin Byrne, has since addressed the matter, and what the club is going to do to prevent this from happening again.

Statement from Managing Director, Robin Byrne:

By now, the frustration and disappointment of tonight’s events will have set in for many of you. I share those feelings, and I want to address them openly.

This is an extremely difficult situation for everyone connected to the club. Both teams trained on the pitch this evening and were prepared to play. Both managers indicated their willingness for the match to go ahead. Ultimately, however, the referee’s decision was made on safety grounds, and that decision is always final.

I also want to acknowledge our supporters, both home and away, including those who made the long journey from Solihull. You travelled in good faith and had every reason to expect a game of football. I am genuinely sorry. Two consecutive late postponements are deeply frustrating, and I fully understand the anger and disappointment many of you feel.

Around 95% of the pitch is in good condition. The issue is confined to a severely damaged goalmouth area that deteriorated significantly during the Macclesfield fixture, played in torrential conditions on an already saturated surface. That provides context, but it does not change the reality that the area has not recovered as we anticipated.

It is important that supporters know this situation has not arisen through inaction or lack of investment. During the off-season, we appointed a new full-time groundskeeper and committed significant resources to improving the surface. The drainage system has been serviced, specialist machinery has been regularly hired to assist recovery, and substantial investment has been made in treatment, fertilisation, and ongoing maintenance throughout the season.

Despite those efforts, what we are currently doing is not delivering the outcome required. That is on us.

Over the next 24 hours, we will be engaging external experts to conduct a further full assessment and advise on both immediate and longer-term solutions. We are determined to resolve this properly and decisively.

I am acutely aware of the financial, competitive and reputational impact of these postponements. Most importantly, I understand what it means for you, our supporters, who plan your weeks around these fixtures.

I would also ask that frustration not be directed toward members of staff who are working tirelessly in extremely challenging conditions. Everyone at this football club cares deeply about getting this right.

We are committed to doing whatever is necessary to fix this issue.

Thank you for your patience and your continued support.

Woking boss Neal Ardley said: “Yeah, we’re hugely disappointed. You know, it’s happened too many times for us now and you get yourself up for a game, you prep for a game, you get ready for the game, you base everything around the game and then it gets called off at the last minute.

“It’s frustrating for all of us. There’s not much more I can say. Sorry.”

Interviewer: “Was there even an inkling that this game could be postponed, because it is the same issue as issues 11 days ago?”

Ardley: “No, we saw the weather forecast, we thought we’d be fine.

“90 % of the pitch is good, 10% of it’s got a doubt about it and it’s the doubt that’s made the ref feel it was unsafe and you know when the ref feels it’s unsafe there’s not much I can say to change their mind.”

Solihull Moors manager Chris Millington said: “Yeah, disappointing obviously, especially with the state of the pitch. 95% of it is in great shape for the time of year. Just an area in the goal mouth which isn’t playable. So yeah, far from ideal but we were lucky enough to get a training session on the pitch so it wasn’t completely wasted we managed to get ourselves, get the lads to run out.”

Interviewer: “The rumour was that you and Neil were happy for your teams to play on the pitch but it was the referee that overrode his decision?”

Millington: “Well the referee, yeah, mean listen, we want to play games and certainly in both cases I think in their case, know, they’re concerned about fixture congestion in our case we want to build some momentum into the back end of the season and we want to do it now and we came here prepared for the game and ready to play.

“But you know the referees concern was player welfare and you know in both our cases we can’t argue with that you know we don’t players from either team to be at risk of getting injured so if that’s the call we have to go along with it we can’t overrule that or push for anything different and it was in fairness to the officials it was a decision that they followed every protocol on and also wanted the game on.

“They wanted to play the game but just felt that the risk of a player to play welfare was the greatest concern so weren’t willing to take that risk.”

Interviewer: “Is there a frustration though that it’s been 15, 16 degrees today and they probably would have been able to do a pitch inspection earlier in the day to prevent travelling fans from going to Woking?”

Millington: “Yeah well I’ve spent six years at Halifax until they had the pitch done in the summer when after I’d left it was you know the whole of the pitch was in that sort of condition, season in season out and you know for large periods of the season so it’s not something I’m completely unfamiliar to.

“But I can also accept that you know in those seasons where we were at Halifax, last season in particular it cost us a significant number of injuries because of that problem that we had to face so listen, you have to balance off our own frustrations and desires with the greater good and that was the decision of the ref.

“The greater good would be served by making sure that the players weren’t put at any undue risk. So, yeah, that was the way the decision felt.”

Interviewer: “Were you eager to get back on the pitch after the Hartlepool result on Saturday?”

Millington: “Oh, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, we’ve, we just want to start putting a run together. We think for large periods of games in recent weeks we’ve performed well.

“In a number of games we feel we’ve been victim of circumstance and then we’ve obviously got the Eastleigh game and the Hartlepool game where we’ve been masters of our own downfall.

“So we’re keen to put those wrongs right. The wrongs of being on the wrong side of certain decisions that have undermined us and the wrongs that we’ve brought upon ourselves. So we’re desperate to put those things right and start putting together performances that are backed by results.

“So, yeah, we wanted to do that tonight. We couldn’t. We could have been gracious enough to let us train on the good areas of the pitch.

“So it’s helped us maintain the physical preparation of the lads and the load that we need to manage throughout the week. And now we look towards Scunthorpe on Saturday.”

Here’s the social media reaction as a statement is issued after Woking v Solihull gets postponed an hour before kick-off…

@r0hanF: Nothing about this makes me feel any better. There has been zero rain today. The club should’ve gotten someone to do a pitch inspection yesterday or at the latest, earlier today. No excuses

@cwc93: Everyone wanted to play, only a small area of the pitch, etc etc. Its irrelevant. Why did the club bury their head in the mountain of sand that’s been dumped in the goalmouth and act like there was no risk of another postponement? 10 days on from making the same error.

@andycutler: Actions speak louder than words.. simply not good enough… please explain if you had an official inspect the pitch this morning and if you did not – why not?

@JackCraig71: It’s the lack of communication to fans that is the issue. How about watching/asking how the ref judged it to be unplayable (ball not bouncing etc) and carry out these examinations ourselves. This end of the pitch has been an issue for years.

@samf679: Very rarely will you hear me throw the club under the bus. But this seasons been a shambles. The level of communication is appalling. 1 home game in 6 weeks – 2 called off an hour before kick off. Right laugh when they tell me my season ticker is going up again next year

@HugeCalfs: so you’ve blamed the ref then decided to blame it on a game that happened a month ago. Then you waffle about all this investment which is making no difference we used to have one of the best pitches in the league and we’ve somehow made it worse. Baffling.

@TheMurph6: Not a valid excuse, West byfleet recs in better condition than that and they take a week in week out hammering, and were played on that very weekend of torrential rain.

@Cardinal27: You forgot to mention the extremely poor communication around a recurring issue. How has it seemingly not occurred to anyone to have the pitch inspected in advance given what we already know. No point bleating on about these wonderful plans if we can’t get the basics right.

@george0fficial1: Ah because the statement makes up for the incompetence of us as a club failing to have our pitch inspected before hand? and make up for the fact we’ve failed to fix the goal mouth issue when we haven’t had a fixture on the pitch for an entire month now?

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Non League