When I was a football obsessive, who regarded the game as the number one priority in my life, I dreaded days like today. A Bristol Rovers home game, meet all my mates in the bar beforehand, a pasty, three points and finally back in the bar afterwards – that was my perfect Saturday. When the rain was chucking it down on the morning of the game, my sense of pessimism. I would follow the club website which would say something like, “There will be a precautionary inspection at 10.00 am, but we do not expect any problems.” Phew. That’s all right then.
The result of that 10.00 am inspection would usually say, “The pitch is playable at the moment but there will be a further inspection at midday.” Oh no. Alarm bells starting to ring. And so it went on. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that this was another way of saying, “The game is probably off but turn up just in case.”
I have arrived at many games where the pitch was clearly unplayable at lunchtime. I have carried on as if everything was normal, but there was always a “tut tutting” club official or a groundsman shaking his head suggesting what I already knew. And then, three pints in, just as the ground was filling up, someone would burst in to the bar. “It’s off.”
Living a few miles from the ground, this was not much of an issue for me. I could squelch my way home in a short space of time. But all the away fans would be there, drinking in the local pubs, having spent an arm and a leg already with nothing to look forward to other than the vague possibility of getting home before last orders. No one seemed to give a thought to the away fans. That seems to be different today.
Today’s game against Wimbledon was postponed nice and early at around 9.30 am. A local referee went along, took one look at the waterlogged pitch, glanced at the weather forecast (more rain and loads of it) and called it off. No arsing around with further inspections. A clear decision based on the current situation and anticipation of the situation later today. There is a fair chance that most Wimbledon fans, apart from those with purchased in advance train tickets, have been spared a pointless journey.
This is a definite improvement on the situation from just a decade ago, when the fans were an afterthought. I do not know whether this is because the clubs are using their brains a bit more, or it’s the Football League and the FA, or maybe it’s a combination of all of these, but it doesn’t matter. The club and the local ref have done the right thing by the fans and we can’t ask for more than that.
