Did we ask for Walsall match postponement?

[LinkNR9 0]

According to posters on Wrath of the Barclay, it was our coaching staff who wanted the match called off. Posters are also saying that, according to Walsall stewards, the pitch is in better nick than their last home match! 

[Ghost of Davie Ross 0]

But surely it is the referee''s decision?

[Syteanric 1]

no we didn''t we cant ask for a postponement anyway.. for 2 reasons

1. we arent chelsea who get away with everything

and

2. Boro tried that a few years ago against blackburn and got a 3 point deduction... You have an obligation to play the match.. only the Ref can call the game off due to the pitch.

[G 0]

Like they are saying on Radio Norfolk. Its the referees decision. League 1 for you. Obviously the pitch is a load of crap on a bright summer day. We have enough injuries as it is so it wouldn''t surprise me if we didn''t want to take the risk.

[NottsCanary 0]

From what I hear, Steed and couple of coachs went out to start warming up, and they were reluctent to due to the ground, but the ref was already considering calling it off at that point anyway. Sounds like he was told that there was a small chance the pitch would be ready, and he risked it.

[NottsCanary 0]

*steer

[WeAreYellows49 0]

Both Lambert and McNally said the ref makes the final decision.

[LinkNR9 0]

[quote user="RonDavies"]But surely it is the referee''s decision?
[/quote]

I understand that, Ron - just reporting what I read. Some refs might give in to a bit of pressure (especially if Lambo wanted to buy some time for the injured players and team recovery from Boxing Day) and it sounds like the home staff were surprised.

[Syteanric 1]

[quote user="WeAreYellows49"]Both Lambert and McNally said the ref makes the final decision.[/quote]

McNally also allaegedly fired Gunn by text message and says Lambert resigned as manager of Colchester ;)

[WeAreYellows49 0]

[quote user="jas the barclay king"]

[quote user="WeAreYellows49"]Both Lambert and McNally said the ref makes the final decision.[/quote]

McNally also allaegedly fired Gunn by text message and says Lambert resigned as manager of Colchester ;)

[/quote]

Hahaha what you trying to say jas? [:D]

[Sell By Dave 0]

Had a look at the pitch before we left (the stewards let us have a peek in the corners, which were the contentious areas apparently) and chatted to a relative of mine, who was reporting on the match. He said no-one had suggested the game may be postponed until City came out to warm up. After looking and pointing a bit they went in, the ref appeared and that was that.

His theory is that Norwich didn''t want to play and made their views clear to the ref. It does make sense - lots of injuries/players missing, Walsall in good form etc etc.

Bloody irritating for those of us who traveled blimmin'' miles to be there though, only to find out about the postponement less than 50 minutes before kick off.

[CJ 0]

As a referee myself I can confirm it is solely his final decision however I am amazed at such a late decision and have to say it is shocking when you consider how far our fans had to travel. The referee says he left it late to give it a chance to go ahead , sorry thats ridiculous . Walsall are probably mainly to blame for this late decision as they were desperate for a match since we had played twice recently and they had not and we had injury worries and they had few. I bet they were leaning far more on the Ref than we were!The pitch should have been inspected BEFORE coaches set off from Norwich and if frozen should have been postponed straight away. To think that a few braziers will do the job , as Neil Adams said would soon start freezing over during match!Of course players will point out problems to the referee, as they have done many times to me, let us be honest its their career on the line if it is frozen and they get injured. I am just shocked that the ref even considered playing it. Very very poor decision process and FA should automatically review any postponement that is called so late when the weather hasnt dramatically changed. Because the real issue here is all the fans who wasted a whole day going there and back, and football needs to keep all the fans it can at present.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="CJ"]As a referee myself I can confirm it is solely his final decision however I am amazed at such a late decision and have to say it is shocking when you consider how far our fans had to travel. The referee says he left it late to give it a chance to go ahead , sorry thats ridiculous . Walsall are probably mainly to blame for this late decision as they were desperate for a match since we had played twice recently and they had not and we had injury worries and they had few. I bet they were leaning far more on the Ref than we were!

The pitch should have been inspected BEFORE coaches set off from Norwich and if frozen should have been postponed straight away. To think that a few braziers will do the job , as Neil Adams said would soon start freezing over during match!

Of course players will point out problems to the referee, as they have done many times to me, let us be honest its their career on the line if it is frozen and they get injured. I am just shocked that the ref even considered playing it. Very very poor decision process and FA should automatically review any postponement that is called so late when the weather hasnt dramatically changed. Because the real issue here is all the fans who wasted a whole day going there and back, and football needs to keep all the fans it can at present.
[/quote]

well as I have put in another thread, and hope there is someone in the central tv area on here to back me up on this, but Walsall were fearing this call off on Boxing day, thier match had been called off and as said on midlands today, if we have a heavy frost  the match against Norwich could be at risk, I still think it should have been called off yesterday or the very earliest 11 am today, Have a feeling the club won''t report them to the FA (Colchester) looming, but we should have a dead line for this and award points to the visitors in cases such as this      

[nutty nigel 7,509]

[quote user="LinkNR9"]According to posters on Wrath of the Barclay, it was our coaching staff who wanted the match called off. Posters are also saying that, according to Walsall stewards, the pitch is in better nick than their last home match! [/quote]

This is because in my opinion Walsall have very cleverly manipulated what actually happened in a way to show their incompetence and disregard for both the players safety and the travelling fans of both clubs in a better light.

The pitch was frozen but they badly wanted the game to be played. They made every effort to get the game played. They should have accepted that it wasn''t possible to thaw out the pitch using their primitive methods and got the referee to look first thing in the morning. The game could have been called off before anyone had left Norwich based on that pitch and the weather forcast. Now to save face and a possible FA investigation they are blaming Norwich and Paul Lambert. Did Paul Lambert freeze the pitch with an icy stare? Of course not. If the referee said it was unsafe then it was unsafe.

Walsall badly wanted the game on. They wanted it on for football reasons and also commercial reasons. So much so that they were prepared to compromise the safety of the players and fans of both clubs. There should be an investigation into why a decision was not made earlier. And if the result of that investigation is that the pitch was playable but the referee called the game off because Lambert asked him to then Walsall are vindicated. But what are the chances of that being the case?

 

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

[quote user="LinkNR9"]According to posters on Wrath of the Barclay, it was our coaching staff who wanted the match called off. Posters are also saying that, according to Walsall stewards, the pitch is in better nick than their last home match! [/quote]

This is because in my opinion Walsall have very cleverly manipulated what actually happened in a way to show their incompetence and disregard for both the players safety and the travelling fans of both clubs in a better light.

The pitch was frozen but they badly wanted the game to be played. They made every effort to get the game played. They should have accepted that it wasn''t possible to thaw out the pitch using their primitive methods and got the referee to look first thing in the morning. The game could have been called off before anyone had left Norwich based on that pitch and the weather forcast. Now to save face and a possible FA investigation they are blaming Norwich and Paul Lambert. Did Paul Lambert freeze the pitch with an icy stare? Of course not. If the referee said it was unsafe then it was unsafe.

Walsall badly wanted the game on. They wanted it on for football reasons and also commercial reasons. So much so that they were prepared to compromise the safety of the players and fans of both clubs. There should be an investigation into why a decision was not made earlier. And if the result of that investigation is that the pitch was playable but the referee called the game off because Lambert asked him to then Walsall are vindicated. But what are the chances of that being the case?

 

[/quote]

 

Off course they will blame Norwich to hide their incompetence.

[dhickl 0]

It looks like the only one from Walsall who comes out of this with credit is the manager, who said:

''The pitch was in better condition today than it was against Leyton Orient in our last home game. It''s extremely disappointing; there was only a very small area of the pitch that gave the referee concern, the rest of it was perfectly playable.

''A lot of people have put an awful lot of hard work and effort in throughout the last few days and I would like to thank them most sincerely. At the end of the day it is the referee''s decision and we have to go along with it.''

[Yelloow Since 72 54]

Interesting post identifying the key issues. Walsall had their previous match postponed and desperately wanted this one to go ahead. I have to say that their contention that the previous pitch for the Orient match was even worse begs a lot of questions and should be investigated, IMO.

[Mr.Carrow 376]

I am assuming it`s the home teams responsibility to call for a pitch inspection and Walsall were so desperate for the game to go ahead, they left it hoping no-one would notice?  Unbelievably shoddy if so.

Got to sample the delights of Rugby on the way home anyway [:S].....that`s the town rather than the sport!

[Lambert is King 0]

Quite clearly Walsall tried to miss lead the referee. The FA should investigate and if this is correct make them compensate people who had a financial loss. My understanding is that if there is any doubt the referee should arrive early or a local referee inspects to save these problems for the travelling supporters, for some reason this did not take place, presumably as Wasall said there was no problem?

We stayed overnight and the temprature was minus all morning and the local forecast was for the same all day, Paul Lambert if he did insist on the game being called off was quite correct and Walsall should admit their wrong doings. By the way a bit of praise for the stewards who were left carry the can - lets not forget their club made no official announcement until 2:30 pm and left it to the stewards who as I understand it do not even get paid for the day.