Pitch Inspection

[JamieUK]

We've heard through somebody at another club that Rovers 'forgot to turn the undersoil heating on until it was too late'.

I hope this is untrue but it's probably going to be one of those things where we will never find out.

Edited December 29, 2005 by JamieUK

[andy82]

We've heard through somebody at another club that Rovers 'forgot to turn the undersoil heating on until it was too late'.

I hope this is untrue but it's probably going to be one of those things where we will never find out.

369732[/snapback]

I would have thought this would be the case - one of my old schoolmates fathers is head groundsman at Scunthorpe Utd - they make a decision around 24 hrs before a game whether to turn the heating on or not. Perhaps they did the same at Ewood and got it wrong?

[Simon Says]

Tom Finn has stated again that the heating was turned on after the players trained on the pitch on Christmas Day and remained on throughout.

The massive drop in temperature yesterday late afternoon/early evening was too much for the system and it could not cope.

[den]

If you read the article on the official site, the heating was turned on, on Christmas day.

[Rovers Air Force]

This is a frustrating situation, mistake or act of nature...there is nothing that can be done about it now.

Even if the underground heating was/is as good as it had been boasted, I doubt that It could have been checked/fixed without ripping up the turf.

plus you guys are all moaning about the lateness of the call, and that many of you had started travelling to the match, but what about the sunderland fans...and for that matter the charlton fans who were on their way to newcastle from london!

all tickets will be valid to for the replay!

Anyway I think I was most put out....quit out of an awesome BF2 server mid battle to listen to the match...found out it was offf, could I get back in to the server? Could I Boll.................

[BRFC4EVA]

Some of you Rovers fans who live in Blackburn need to grow up and stop moaning. I met somone y'sday, who had woken up a 6am on wed mourning in Southamton where hes from, taken the coach to London, waited 3 hours in the cold for a 6 hour coach journey from London to Blackburn. Then obviously find out that the match is off, but the return coach is an overnight 1 to London leaving at 22.25 from Blackburn. It arrives in London at 6am where he had to get another coach to Southamton and he was due to get home to his house at around 10am. He had work an hour later. Thats the kinda dedication that more locals need to show!

I heard from a Sunderland fan i met that they had over 4,000 fans travelling down and it would have been a crowd around the 24k+ mark. Crying shame but the weather mostly (and the club to a small degree as well) should take the blame

[the original david brent]

After reading some of these posts, Im sick of various people sticking up for the club on this matter. The club dropped a major boll**k last night, whether some people like it or not. In these weather conditions, you would expect matches to be called off on pleasington fields on a sunday morning, but not at a premiership club with state of the art facilites. Games were played at league 1 clubs tranmere and huddersfield, all within a 30-40 radius of blackburn. How come in similar temperatures their undersoil heating adequately withstood the conditions? Why were these league 1 outfits better prepared for the bad weather? At least bolton had the decency to admit a cock up!

Yesterday was a chance to regain some of our lost support. A number of my friends who hadn't been all season had tickets for last nights match. Straight away they returned them for a refund, as Im sure a lot of people did. The least the club can do is reduce prices for the rearranged game. Burnley reduced their prices against stoke and had a massive crowd.

The club cannot simply hide behind the weather as an excuse. Somewhere along the line a massive cock up was made which left 20k+ blackburners p****d off

[Jordan]

After hearing the Bolton match had been called off, I texted my mate to check with the club that we would still playing.  Afterall, travelling from Halifax for no reason wouldn't be fun.

He spoke to the club around 1700 and they said it will definitely be on.

We duly set off at 1730, only to hear on 5 Live that a pitch inspection was being undertaken at 1800.  Ten mins later I get a phone call saying the game was off.  We were over half way to Ewood.

How could the club go from a categoric yes to speaking to the ref and getting the game postponed in about 60 mins?

I quickly called Martin who I knew was travelling from Scunthorpe, and he'd just arrived at the ground.  He too had been advised the game was definitely on.

Huge own goal for Rovers.

369515[/snapback]

Try traveling from Harrogate and been sat in the Blues Bar when it was called off. Its along way for a pint of Carling. The same happened at Birmingham a few years ago when i was sat in Macdonalds outside the ground and i heard on the radio that it was off.

[stuwilky]

Try traveling from Harrogate and been sat in the Blues Bar when it was called off. Its along way for a pint of Carling. The same happened at Birmingham a few years ago when i was sat in Macdonalds outside the ground and i heard on the radio that it was off.

369762[/snapback]

Your own fault for living in dirty Yorkshire.

[Tony Diamond Inc]

Won't bother quoting all your post Hughesy but well said.

Anyone else on here who went to the game at Cambridge a few year's ago that was called off at half time due to a frozen pitch? Now that was effin cold and frustrating, but it is just all part of being a football fan.

Worst thing about that was that we went all the way back when it was replayed and lost!

369707[/snapback]

Now that was cold! Coldest place I've ever been on earth.

[RevidgeBlue]

If as seems probable the undersoil heating packed up then that presumably is a technical problem that can easily be resolved. Must say I have to laugh at the "It couldn't be expected to work when the temperature dropped a few degrees below zero" type comments. That's exactly what it's there for surely!

What this episode can hopefully do is give us the kick up the arse which is obviously necessary to get our act in order behind the scenes.

Why were callers not forewarned about the potential problem with the pitch and in particular the pitch inspection?

How come Sky Sports News knew about both the pitch inspection and the eventual postponement but the Club's own employees i.e. the ticket office and Radio Rovers, seemingly didn't? For the ticket office to insist on selling tickets after the game had been called off beggars belief.

Completely farcical and it wouldn't take much more than a repeat of something like this for the club to lose all credibility with the paying public.

[SAS]

If you read the article on the official site, the heating was turned on, on Christmas day.

369740[/snapback]

i went past on christmas day, the lights were on too

i discovered today that the players were training

that would be why all the ferraris and aston martins were outside the jack walker stand

[1864roverite]

It always helps if you have inside knowledge

I think with tonights freezing winds and lowering temp ANY club with undersoil heating may face problems as we HAVE NOT had these cold temperatures for many a year. MAYBE some of the systems are unable to cope with such a drop in temp.

In any case, I know that the Wigan match is NOT 100% safe, they have the exact system as Rovers

[S15]

Yes but to be fair I think the Rovers game would have gone ahead had it have been a 3.00pm k/o.

Also, rain forcasted for before weekend,... Me thinks it's 95% safe.

[USABlue]

Some of you Rovers fans who live in Blackburn need to grow up and stop moaning. I met somone y'sday, who had woken up a 6am on wed mourning in Southamton where hes from, taken the coach to London, waited 3 hours in the cold for a 6 hour coach journey from London to Blackburn. Then obviously find out that the match is off, but the return coach is an overnight 1 to London leaving at 22.25 from Blackburn. It arrives in London at 6am where he had to get another coach to Southamton and he was due to get home to his house at around 10am. He had work an hour later. Thats the kinda dedication that more locals need to show!

I heard from a Sunderland fan i met that they had over 4,000 fans travelling down and it would have been a crowd around the 24k+ mark. Crying shame but the weather mostly (and the club to a small degree as well) should take the blame

369752[/snapback]

4eva, we should all know and understand some people never miss the chance to have a go at the club.

[bb3]

It's time to move on I think,not that big a deal really.

[Ste B]

Completely farcical and it wouldn't take much more than a repeat of something like this for the club to lose all credibility with the paying public.

369795[/snapback]

Oh FFS.

Nobody posting on here understands exactly how undersoil heating does/should work.

Its the coldest spell we have had for 20 years.

As the saying goes, @#/? happens.

Get over it, its the 3rd game in about 15 years thats been called off, which is realistically a decent record. Remember the disgrace that was the ICI pitch we used to have where if somebody left the tap on in the bogs, the game was off ??

I get the impression certain people on here are waiting for the opportunity to have a pop.

For the record, Rovers should take the SMS numbers of all season ticket holders, and if a game is called off SMS them immediately, but I dont see what they could realistically have done if the game looked on at 5pm and the game was called off at 6.

[RevidgeBlue]

Its the coldest spell we have had for 20 years.

.

369843[/snapback]

Rubbish.

[RevidgeBlue]

Deleted

Edited December 30, 2005 by RevidgeBlue

[RevidgeBlue]

Get over it, its the 3rd game in about 15 years thats been called off, which is realistically a decent record.  Remember the disgrace that was the ICI pitch we used to have where if somebody left the tap on in the bogs, the game was off ??

369843[/snapback]

I remember in the old days getting to the bottom of Buncer Lane in the car and the game being called off over the radio at 2.15p.m. due to a sudden cloudburst. That's unavoidable.

In this case the condition of the pitch couldn't possiby have come about instantly.

Either the undersoil heating was working in which case the pitch would have been fine, or it (obviously) wasn't in which case the pitch would obviously have been unfit from early morning onwards (conditions were similar the previous night) and an earlier announcement could easily have been made.

Aside from that there was the PR disaster of neither the ticket office nor Radio Rovers being aware of the situation.l

[Yorick]

If you read the article on the official site, the heating was turned on, on Christmas day.

369740[/snapback]

Shouldn't that 'believed' rather than read Den? Some very high profile Blackburn 'Suits' in the pub afterwards informed me that it was only switched on in the morning of the game. Surely undersoil heating is designed for -6 degrees of frost?

Cock up imo.

[USABlue]

Oh FFS.

Get over it, its the 3rd game in about 15 years thats been called off, which is realistically a decent record.  Remember the disgrace that was the ICI pitch we used to have where if somebody left the tap on in the bogs, the game was off ??

I get the impression certain people on here are waiting for the opportunity to have a pop.

369843[/snapback]

Exactly. On both counts.

[bb3]

Do some people realise how stupid they sound on this thread?

Sometimes things just don't go to plan.

I want to be that bloke that won £15m on the lottery.

I want beer to be cheaper.

I want my house to treble in value.

I want dogshit to clear itself up from the backyard.

None of it's going to happen though because thats just life,a game of football got called off because of severe weather conditions.

Thats no disrespect to the people that travelled a long way to watch Rovers last night,that must have been a pain but I just think theres a lot of the usual general whining on here.

I was talking to some mackems in the brown cow and they just laughed it off and stayed for a few pints.

At the the end of the day life could be a lot worse than a bloody football game getting called off.

So chill out you sad bar stewards.

[RevidgeBlue]

Au contraire, most people on here won't criticise the club even when they're clearly in the wrong because they think it makes them a better supporter.

I got horrendous flak on here about Grabbi and Souness. (But I was right with the benefit of hindsight)

At least Preston Blue has had the decency to express his concerns. What's the point of a messageboard, Fans Forum, or BRISA if you can't criticise the club when they make the occasional foul up?

[Wolverine]

Been thinking and here is the solution.

Erect a 100 foot beacon over the walkersteel with a loudspeaker so loud you can hear it all over the world.

If anything worth moaning about happens at ewood it will be transmitted immediatly to everyone.

Then we can all gather in an unruly mob and blame someone, whom we can then hang from the beacon while we sing and dance and drink below.

Would that make us happy?

No, cos we are Rovers fans - proud to be cynical!