Game OFF!

[ID]

For purely selfish reasons the postponement isn't too bad for me, hopefully I'll be able to make the re-arranged fixture (I am back in Ireland atm, but will be in England again after New Year's). Oxford is one of the easier games to get to

I feel for the fans who were en route, though.

[Formic]

The whole thing was a bit of a farce, as it seems there is a lot of politics between the people that own the stadium, and OUFC themselves. At the ground it was 8 degrees, and even the strip that was shaded by the stand was OK, but there was an area in the middle of the pitch which had a build up of ice - possibly due to the covers not being removed when they should have been when the weather warmed up on Christmas Eve. They tried to thaw it, but to no avail. The Oxford manager was livid, making it clear there was no excuse for not getting the pitch into shape, and the Chairman (who had flown in from the USA for the game) promised a full enquiry.

There were people turning up at the ground who had no idea the game was even in doubt - as it was such a nice day, with no trace of frost and all the snow having melted.

The team bus had arrived shortly before the announcement, and left shortly afterwards.

Another one to add to the ever growing list of wasted journeys following the Diamonds ...

[Olly]

Interesting post from the Oxford forum

"Lots of rumours about what happened today going about,lots of finger pointing going on... the club to blame,the stadium to blame,the groundstaff to blame...etc

The pitch was due to be cut, marked etc on wednesday where it was found to be frozen too much to work on so it was arranged to be covered on wednesday as a safety measure and as the tempratures were set to rise it was organised that groundstaff would go in today and remove the covers and mark the pitch etc...but the ground had not de-frosted under the covers that were laid to protect it from frost. there was no arrangement made by the club or the stadium management to go in christmas day .So when it was discovered today that the covers had stopped the thawing process it was all hands to the pumps to help thawing it,it worked well enough and many hands were in place to pour warm water and fork the area's concerned.

At 11 am the ref decided to give it till 1 pm to decide, he did seem quite happy throughout this hour and half that it was thawing quick enough and waited to speak to Rushden powers upon their arrival, all of a sudden the game was called off which left all of us dumbfounded as it was softening very quickly.

I am not a referee and have no idea as to his decision,although players safety seemed to be his concern.

So after you have read this you have the full story...you can blame the club,the stadium,the groundstaff,the referee or the weather.If it in pecking order i would guess its weather,club,stadium,groundstaff,ref...whatever you decide someone somewhere in the following days/weeks will get the blame...but who?

I feel that i know where the buck will stop...shame really because i dont think it was our fault !


dec 26th 2009...bad day at the office."

[BartonRaz]

I was about 10 miles from the ground when i heard. A bit frustrated that we missed out on playing infront of such a big crowd.

[srusrdfc]

ive heard that it was only a small part in the centre of the pitch so it had an hour and a half to fore out, it was warm for the time of the year aswell. Now its going to be on a Tuesday night and there won't be asmany people there.

[Steve]

I have gotta say i agree with ID, i could not make it yesterday, but i can potentially make it to a midweek fixture in the future. My gang normally make the effort for oxford away but on boxing day we just couldn't.