The Voice - Match preview Barrow vs Bradford City Tuesday 23 April 2024 7.45pm (with exciting New Poll)

I'm sure he alludes to the point that the pitch is like that every week.

 

Giggle.

 

You sure about that? The area around the Kop and Main stand is a quagmire and rarely does the ball "bounce" down there when it lands. It sort of just dies and rolls away.

 

Never thought of it like that but that is a damn good shout

 

Yeah it's a bit tacky but it doesn't die on the surface. Once you get to the stage where the ball lands and doesn't move then the game is off. If they were dropping the ball in the area on the pitch inspection and it was landing like it would on sand then that's curtains.

I was worried about our match getting abandoned the or her night so was watching every bounce and even though our pitch was as bad as it gets it still kept popping up off the pitch. Not once did it 'die' on the surface.

 

Interesting that the ref asked the managers for their input but Wild didn't offer an opinion. Suggests he didn't want to have any responsibility for the decision and put it all back on the ref.

 

You watched every bounce. Don't make me laugh. Trot on.

 

Lets be civil eh? Trot on? Not really an issue worth getting excited about is it.

Yeah I was wondering if the ball was going to get stuck in the turf leading to the match being abandoned. We were playing well and I was enjoying it so yeah I did take an interest in whether the pitch would hold. It did.

 

What went wrong yesterday, when the rules state

“Match PostponementsThe match referee will always base his decision on the condition of the pitch at the time of inspection, but will also factor in any forecast improvements or otherwise and consult both managers/backroom staff of each Club. Ultimately however, the Referee's decision is final in this scenario.”

He ignored the weather forecast as being sunny , breezy and conditions drying out
He consulted and ignored opposing ex professional players, ie both managers request the game goes ahead.

A tad pointless including this qualifying criteria in the rules

Nothing will change and nothing will happen to the ref because he’s the arbiter as stated in the rules. Just one single sentence will suffice instead of including that preamble waffle .

 

Probably because it was densely packed sand and soil without a great deal of surface water. If it’s “open” ,unrolled mud , like our local pitches which I walk across every day , then the ball won’t bounce.

 

Prior to making the decision did either manager tell the referee to go ahead with the game? Their manager said 'you're the ref, it's your decision'. Sounds like he didn't offer an opinion there. Maybe he didn't want the responsibility of being part of the decision. Easier to let the ref make the decision on his own and then slag him off afterwards.

Once again, the pitch was deemed unplayable. The ball wouldn't bounce. The pitch has got large areas filled in with sand ffs. The balls not bouncing, it's not going ahead. It doesn't matter if it's 70 degrees and blue sky, if the ball won't bounce in areas of the pitch, it's not playable.

 

My thoughts too.
Hence the big kick off afterwards

 

Its poor and proper snide imo. If Wild had said all that sh*t he spouted in the interview to the ref during the pitch inspection there's a chance the game might've gone ahead but he kept his powder dry because he didn't want to be responsible for any incidents during the game that might come back on him. So, he distances himself from the decision and then comes out and slags off the fall guy.

 

Two points Kev, then I'm finished with this. First the T&A today has pictures of the Barrow training game and then the sprinklers of afterwards. Second during my talk with Pete Wild he said he had watched us against Wycombe and, lack of grass aside, he was impressed with how the VP pitch played, true run of the ball with no bouncing over ruts and plenty of bounce on"a decent surface, grass aside".

 

Still gutted! Spent over a £100 of my hard earned cash yesterday for nothing.

Shit decision, made far too late and I provably won't be able to make the replay as I work until 6.

 

The managers don't make the decision whether the pitch is playable or not that's solely the referees call he was in my opinion wrong to allegedly invite input from the managers it's his decision and ultimately his responsibility whether the game proceeds or not
In his opinion the pitch was unplayable no discussion with third parties it's the refs final say
If we are looking to apportion blame/fault then surely Barrow and in particular their groundsmen are to be questioned
Providing a pitch suitable for a match is solely their responsibility the referee is not employed by the club to maintain the pitch he is there as part of his responsibility to ensure the pitch is fit for purpose sadly for the fans that travelled he deemed it unfit rightly or wrongly

 

The referee has the final decision. But the rules also stipulate that the referee can also consult managers before making a decision. It looks like their manager didn't put forward any persuasion about the game going ahead prior to the decision being made.

 

One of their players was going to take a throw in right in front of us he changed his mind and dropped it on the pitch and it didnt bounce it just stuck there,it was close to the edge of pitch tho

 

If the groundsmen and Barrow football club had any doubts about the playing surface, surely they would have asked the ref to do an early pitch inspection, given he had stayed overnight in the area. The fact that they didn't suggests to me that they didn't have any concerns about the pitch and it came as a complete shock to them when the ref made the call that he did.