"The referee made the right decision. The pitch was unplayable. There was a lot of water on the pitch and that made it dangerous. I would have been mortified if the game went ahead and one of my play-ers got injured because of the conditions." Lennie told the Western Mail.
Vale boss Brian Horton said
"If the game went ahead it would have been a farce."
As one of the 500 or so that made the wasted journey (and as one of those who was en route to Northampton 10 days ago) I'm amazed that the fans were not taken into consideration. We made contact with Port Vale at 6pm to be told the game is on and no inspection is planned only to arrive in Stoke at 7pm and find that at 6:45pm the referee had declared the pitch unplayable.
I appreciate that weather forces postponements but why not make some decisions earlier in the day, aparantly the weather in the region had been bad for days but to be told at 6pm all was well when obviously it wasn't is was a poor move. Nothing we can do about it as fans though. We'll be there when it's re-played on Feb 25th.
I will be making several phone calls to Yorkshire before leaving for Huddersfield on Saturday. Last season the Huddersfield game was called off an hour before kick off, and the forecast for this weekend is not the best. This is the second away league game in a row that this has happened. Cardiff City worked miracles to protect and repair their pitch after it was badly cut up and rained upon on New Years Day. 4 days later a perfectly good playing surface was produced for the visit of Coventry. Compliments to the Cardiff groundstaff for their efforts, why can't other clubs protect their pitches?
The postponement means that Willie Bolands suspension carries over to Saturday. He will miss the trip to Huddersfield. There is a plus side though as far as Alan Mahon is concerned. The new signing from Blackburn will be registered on Friday and can play Saturday. He will also then be available for the game at Port Vale when it's played late in February.
City remain 4th in Division 2 going into this weekends games. The only other match in the Division last night say Notts County come from 2 down to beat Carlton Palmers struggling Stockport 3 - 2.
City now have two games to catch up on. The first postponed game against Northampton will be played now on Feb 4th and the Port Vale game is on Feb 25th.
This Saturdays game at Huddersfield is all ticket.
Fans reaction to postponement.
"well what a time to call off a match. no consideration for the travelling supporter. Dont these clubs ever use or believe weather reports. Two away league matches and two postponements. Its very expensive on the pocket"
"There should be a rule about clubs calling games off less than a couple of hours before hand.If they think the match is in doubt it will save everybody hassle"
"It genuinely was heavy rain and a real cloudburst but no monsoon, no way could it go from "definitely in" to "waterlogged" in 45 minutes. You do have a simmering anger about it all although you have to laugh it off. Not once did they hint the game was in any danger, it must have been from early in the day, and you have to assume the ref arrived very late at the ground. For Saturday matches, I understand that refs have to be at the ground 3 hours before kick-off but that rule doesn't apply midweek. Where's the fairness to travelling fans in that?"