[ Sat 2nd Jan ] v Arlesey Town, KO 3pm SL1DC HOME

[BartonRaz]

Absolutely the right decision to abandon the game, the goalmouth in front of the PDB was a right mess and the centre of the pitch looked poor also. The pitch as a whole has really deteriorated in the last few weeks after the sustained bad weather and heavy usage.

Starting XI was particularly weak I thought although it's academic now. Not sure what the idea was leaving Richards, Hall and Hoban out as it only served to remove all creativity from our side. Surely we ought to be utilising the wings during home games as it's the only area of the pitch that isn't badly cut-up.

[Rushden123]

Really poor conditions to play in, I had hoped we had got away from the 433/ 451 formation. The starting line up was very strange no pace and certainly no width. Hoban for hall would have been a better idea. Thought they were the better team and certainly played the better football. Shame Sam Browns final game turned out like that.

[blackcountrydiamond]

It was obvious right from the start that players just couldn't run with the ball across the surface even out wide so it made sense to me to leave players like Richards, Hall and Hoban on the bench and go with Liversedge, Lorraine, Berwick and Leslie as a front four with Bunting and Harris holding midfield.

They combined well at times and created some good shooting chances and having the wide players to come on later in the second half against tiring legs was a pretty astute tactical decision by the manager I felt. Just shows you see things how you want to see things and I'm definitely a glass half full kind of guy (especially after a ridiculous backs to the wall smash and grab win by an own goal for the mighty Wolves yesterday....)

[Dowlo]

I wasn't there today (haven't been able get to a home game since Barwell). However having seen recent pictures online and on Snapchat, the pitch looks in a very bad way.

Hats off to everyone who got the game on today, but surely in the long run more damage has been done to the pitch by playing the first 45 minutes today? Obviously I can see the need to get games on in order to generate revenue etc but in the long run surely it puts more games at the risk of postponement in the near future? I'm aware that the club can't help the weather etc but is it not worth waiting for the pitch to "recover" fully/more as it were. Rather than trying to rush to get it playable from a situation were there was a 50/50 chance of the game being on.

Fair play to Mark and his team for all the hard work they have put in over the last few seasons to make the pitch look like a carpet compared to a few seasons ago. The change is remarkable, however will playing on it when it's not fully ready do more harm than good? I was just wondering as I was hoping to make the trip up from Ipswich to watch the game on Tuesday (weather permitting)

[Trek]

I was just wondering as I was hoping to make the trip up from Ipswich to watch the game on Tuesday (weather permitting)

With the rain forecast over the next 2-3 days not a cat in hell's chance that this game will go ahead.

[bozzer]

Yesterday the pitch was not playable so an early inspection was organised and we expected to have to call the game off and people could get on with their shopping etc. However at 7.30am when the first person got there the pitch had dried quite a lot overnight.With 0.5mm of rain forecast for the rest of the day it was decided to work on the pitch and get it inspected later on again. This needed some reorganisation and agreement hence taking 50 odd minutes to announce.
I would make the point here the easy option at this stage would probably be have been to say we can't do it so call it off but the encouraging forecast suggested it was worth it. So the volunteers worked from 9am until kick off to get it ready, they had done a great job as everyone who was there saw at kick off.
Had the 0.5mm of rain over the 90 minutes come as planned we would have played without too much damage to the pitch.
As soon as we kicked off the heavens opened and 0.5mm turned into 3.5mm which the pitch wouldn't take.
We damned if we did and damned if we didn't, unfortunately it didn't work today but much better to have tried and failed than not tried at all.
And it meant we could say goodbye to brownie properly!

[Formic]

I guess we might all profit from synchronising our weather forecasts, as the one I'd been relying on (from the BBC), led me to believe the weather would be as bad as it was, so I'd made plans for Saturday that had to be quickly scrapped when the game was declared on.

[bozzer]

We've used metcheck all season as it normally tells us how much rain is due rather than it's just going to rain and it's been fairly accurate.

I checked it after the game was abandoned to make sure we hadn't read it incorrectly and it clearly states 0.3mm which the pitch would have taken

[bozzer]

Couple of interviews after the match

[sussexdiamond]

With no further midweek games scheduled for this season, other than Easter, this game and probably St Ives, do not need to be rescheduled until late February at the earliest. A near end of season match against St Ives would get a great crowd.

But of course in all likelihood the Southern League will arrange for both games to be played by end of January and both will be postponed again!