By Andrew Warshaw
Whatever happened to fair play and common sense?
Enfield Town go into Tuesday’s rescheduled game against Horsham still reeling from the staggering decision to call off Saturday’s fixture against Dover Athletic, leaving a number of burning questions unanswered amid all manner of repercussions.
As many supporters will know, the pitch (pictured, Saturday morning) had been passed fit by a local Step 2 referee who conducted a precautionary early inspection before passing his findings to the match referee.
The ultimate decision was then taken based on photographic and video evidence without the match ref himself visiting the club to check in person, leading to the only game in the entire division being postponed and, to pile on the frustration, sending us to the bottom of the table after Chippenham’s result. You really couldn’t make it up.
It begs the question firstly as to why this kind of process is permitted at such a high level of non-league football unless, of course, there are justifiable mitigating circumstances. It’s also important to stress that the opinion of a fellow Step 2 referee with presumably just as much experience (he ended up being the man in the middle at Dorking-Farnborough) was ultimately ignored.
Thirdly, on a bright sunny day, why couldn’t the match referee have asked for a further inspection, say a couple of hours later, still giving Dover time to travel?
Throw into the mix the fact that this was the same match referee who, equally controversially, called off the original Hampton game (which still hasn’t been played after two further postponements ) and you get some idea of why the ruling caused so much incredulity. Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice? ….
While suggestions that the match referee still got paid half his fee are wide of the mark, spare a thought for Neil Lutwyche and his fellow ground staff, all volunteers, who gave up hours of their free time, both Friday and early Saturday, making sure the pitch was in perfectly playable shape.
Then there is the knock-on effect of having lost thousands of pounds in match-day revenue and bar and shop takings, plus several hundred more as a result of programme costs – both printing and sales.
Most important of all, perhaps, is how an already stretched squad will adapt to dealing with a nightmare fixture pile-up.
If Horsham ends up also being postponed, Town will have to play every Tuesday and Saturday between now and the end of March, a tall order for a full-time side, let alone part-timers who train twice a week, and only once when there are midweek games. Even if Horsham beats the weather, only one Tuesday before the end of March will be available to train and/or rest.
“I’m completely flabbergasted and simply cannot comprehend it,” Gavin Macpherson said minutes after the Dover postponement. “I’ve never witnessed anything like this before. I’ve tried to put myself in the referee’s shoes and I am still totally baffled. Player safety is paramount but the bounce was true and there will be pitches up and down the country in a far worse condition that will have been played on.”
Take a look at Grimsby’s mudbath against Wolves in the FA Cup and you get Gav’s point.
“These decisions make changing planning for more games in a very short period of time incredibly difficult,” he added.
As for mid-table Horsham, they come into the rescheduled fixture having taken just two points from their last four league outings but, ominously, have fared extremely well on the road and are unbeaten away since Dec 26. Two weeks ago they pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season by knocking Step 1 high fliers Scunthorpe out of the FA Trophy to reach the quarterfinals.
“Probably they’ve exceeded expectations but they’ve kept the players they wanted to, havn’t had too much upheaval and have plenty of goals in them,” said Gavin who will be without Xav Benjamin who serves his one-match ban.