Athlone-Kildare match

[Philly]

Kildare County are unhappy (to say the least) with the nature of the postponement of last nights season opener v Athlone.

http://kildarecountyfc.com/news/news-details.asp?NewsID=997
"Kildare County Football Club would like to apologise to all our fans and indeed also to our players, management and backroom staff for their wasted trip to Athlone yesterday.

We would like to state the following:

At no time were we made aware that their was a potential problem with the playability of the pitch.

We were not informed that a pitch inspection was carried out at around 2pm.

Our playing staff and management arrived at the ground at approx 5pm. In the opinion of our senior management the pitch was most definately not playable. This view was relayed to Athlone Town staff.

The match officials declared the pitch unplayable at approx 6pm, one hour before scheduled kick-off.

Kildare County FC is unhappy, with the lack of communication which resulted in many people incurring unnescessary cost in travelling to the venue.

The rules regarding the inspection of pitches etc. are clearly laid down in the Participation Agreement and Kildare County FC, will take up the matter with the FAI Eircom League of Ireland immediately.

Again apologies to those who were disappointed, having travelled to Athlone."

One fan that was there very early and noticed that actually, there was barely any grass on the pitch! The lack of info and manner in which the game was called off is stupid. You can do all the promotion in the world but at the end of the day when the League is run like this people are never going to be bothered.

[LeixlipRed]

two this season already and we're only a week in

Not even two days into the season :eek:

[neville neville]

Dont suppose this has been re-scheduled yet has it?

[Ash]

Nope, not yet.

[EAFC_rdfl]

One fan that was there very early and noticed that actually, there was barely any grass on the pitch! The lack of info and manner in which the game was called off is stupid. You can do all the promotion in the world but at the end of the day when the League is run like this people are never going to be bothered.

why is this? is it just from pre season training or whats the reason for the pitch being so badly worn?

[passerrby]

why is this? is it just from pre season training or whats the reason for the pitch being so badly worn?

agree what is the problem was it just waterlogged or has it been overused

[neutrino]

That's a joke alright. The fai are not showing enough respect to the clubs and seem to disregard their importance. This is yet another farce of a situation - two this season already and we're only a week in

would have thought it was down to the home team to contact Kildare County, the appointed ref and FAI if there was any doubt at all about the game. If the FAI knew early in the day then Kildare should have been notified - however if FAI didnt know - what can/could they do. Was surprise to hear a new pitch like Athlones was waterlogged - must have been very heavy rainfall !!

[Ash]

There was a inspection at 2pm and the verdict at 2.30pm was the pitch was playable.
No real point in contacting Kildare with that information as they were under the impression
the game would be on anyway.

Referee then called the game off at 6pm with both teams already at the stadium and making
preparations. Nothing Athlone could do about that at all as the last official word they were
given was that the pitch was Ok.

From what I was told, the reason it was called off was due not only to the pitch conditions at
the time but it was also taking into account the forcasted stormy weather so it was postponed
ahead of possible abondonment.

Pitch itself is getting a lot of use between pre-season and underage internationals so the surface
is getting cut up.

Also, there are a number of internationals to be played on it this week so that may have had bearing
on the decision. Again, pure speculation.