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Swindon boss criticised by fans for claiming Barrow should forfeit points

Swindon Town boss Ben Garner has been criticised by fans for claiming that Barrow should forfeit points if the game is postponed.

The Robins head coach made the comments despite expecting his team’s League Two fixture away at the Cumbrian outfit this weekend to go ahead, but believes the hosts should hand the points over to their opponents if it is called off.

Barrow saw their game against Salford City postponed in midweek due to a waterlogged pitch, and there remains a little amount of doubt over whether the Bluebirds’ game against Swindon on Saturday can go ahead with some expectation for more heavy rain coming in on the north-west coast.

WATCH: Ben Garner's post Rovers Press Conference in full - News - Swindon  Town

Garner boss says the conversations he and the club have had over the past 48 hours suggest to him that there should be a game for fans to look forward to.

In Friday’s pre-match press conference, Garner explained. He said: “The conversations that we’ve had over the past two days is that the game will go ahead. If we travel and it doesn’t go ahead, I will be extremely disappointed.

“In my opinion, we should get the points if that happens because it’s such a long journey, and I don’t think it’s right if we go all the way up there and the game is called off.

“But the assurances we have at the moment is that the game will go ahead, so hopefully that is the case.

“I know there has been a bit of bad weather, but our pitch here is absolutely fine so we could certainly play at home. I’m hoping Barrow’s pitch is up to it on Saturday and we can play the game.

“There can be exceptional circumstances, but we’re at a point now where unless there are torrential storms I don’t think football league games should be getting called off, if I’m honest.

“And it’s not like it’s just around the corner – the amount of expense that it’s costing us and the fans to travel, and the distance it is, once a team commits to that then the game should go ahead.

“If the game is in doubt prior to that, then make a decision before teams do travel. I’m not talking about this game, I’m talking generally.

“We’d like to think the game will go ahead, and we’d be extremely disappointed if we do travel and it’s called off on the day.”

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Mark Cooper believes Barrow’s washout against Salford City could prove a blessing in the long run as they prepare for a busy run of games.

“It gives us a chance to freshen the players up,” said Cooper, whose squad trained on a 3G facility in Bury yesterday morning.

“They should be full of energy for Saturday.

“We’re not overly devastated that the game was off, because we had a tough game on Saturday.

“People will say it would have been good to play Salford because they lost…but we’ve been able to freshen everyone up this week.

“We wanted to play, of course, but if we’d played, the pitch would have been ripped to pieces for the rest of the season and probably would have been a lottery. There’s no point playing then. Eyes are now focused on Saturday.”

Cooper said it was unlikely he would have any injured players back for Saturday’s game, but as the club get closer to the busy festive period, he said that managing the squad carefully was paramount.

“Hopefully one or two are coming back for the crescendo of games we’ve got coming up,” he said.

“We have to make sure we pitch the training schedule just right, so that we’re not doing too much and make sure we’re doing enough.

“That’s a difficult balance. The players want to work hard, they want to play games; of course you’ll pick up one or two injuries when you have that many games and we have to be able to deal with that.”

As mentioned, the Swindon boss was criticised by fans for claiming Barrow should forfeit points if their game is postponed due to the weather, here’s what was tweeted…

@michaeledowning: What a complete joke of an individual, it’s 251 miles mate, hope you never manage a team that qualifies for Europe. Does he not realise that football exists north of Birmingham. Tosser!!

@ForeverAYellow: Couldn’t sound anymore desperate

@JJHarri40364562: Asking for the points if it’s called off, ffs 🤦🏻‍♂️

Phil Farley: I’m sorry but how on earth is this Barrow’s fault?

Ian Jenkins: Nah not having that, you can’t punish Barrow

Jayden Lewis: Surely this is all down to the referee and his decision to postpone and not the club’s?!

Aaron Wilkinson: Did he really just say that? Made himself look a right tit

Stephen Wright: I’ve heard it all now

Dave Holden: That’s just being petty

Si Edwards: Yeah good luck with that one, why should the rules suddenly change for him, every other team who had to travel long distance and have a game postponed have just got one with it, shit happens get over it

Peter Broerse: How pathetic does this sound? Every game comes with risks of postponements or abandonments for a variety of reasons, whether its the weather, medical, fan trouble or safety concerns. It’s like fans bizarrely demanding a refund yet we all go with the unpredictability of something unfortunate happening like a thrashing. It is what it is.

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