Truro - The Facts!

[Windsor_Sec]

Given that there are currently two threads running about the events last Saturday, I thought it best to try and bring everything together under one heading and explain the sequence of events as they unfolded.

 

First of all I will deal with the facts of what happened and then I'll go on to some of the other comments made on the two threads.

 

Friday 10.12am.[All times given are logged on my mobile].

Call received from Truro secreatry. Pitch hard [like it would be in April for example through lack of water] but not frozen. Given the weather forecast no inspection is planned and the game will go ahead unless we have severe weather problems overnight.

 

Saturday approx 9.35am.

Players and staff leave on coach from hotel to travel to local school for light training session.

 

Saturday 9.51am.

Whilst I was at the hotel in Newquay. Call received from Truro vice-chairman. We have arranged a pitch inspection for 11am as it's frozen solid. When asked how it had gone from not-frozen to frozen overnight he said we've had a severe frost. I said we had a frost in Newquay overnight but not what you would call severe. [Him] Well the refree will decide will you be able to get here. [Me] Not for 11 as the coach hasn't come back yet, can you arrange a later inspection as we're already down here. [Him] I'll talk to the referee.

 

Saturday 10.25am.

Contacted Southern League secretary to try and put pressure on Truro to go for later inspection as weather was warming up all the time and, as we were there, it didn't matter how late the inspection was. Informed that the league cannot enforce anything to do with the inspecion as it's entirely down to the match referee.

 

Saturday 11.02am.

Called Truro vice-chairman and left message asking to speak to the referee on arrival at the ground.

 

Saturday 11.07am.

Call received from Truro vice-chairman to say game was off. When asked why the referee wouldn't do a later inspection was told he couldn't get a fork in the ground and didn't think another two hours would make any difference. I asked to speak to the referee and was told he had already left the ground.

 

So those are the facts as they happened. I think you will see that every effort was made to have a later inspection but the match referee has the final say and in his opinion it was never going to be ready in time. My only real question is how the pitch had suddenly deteriorated so much in the space of 24 hrs given the weather we had and having been told the previous morning that there were not any forseeable problems [MISM also confirmed that in his post as he was told exactly the same thing].

None of us wanted to get there to find the match was off, 16 players, manager, coach, physio, kit-man have all taken time off work. I've lost two days wages as I'm not entitled to any more holidays in my new job and I've also paid for a hotel room and food, does anybody honestly believe that we wanted that to happen?

 

Now to answer some of the posts that have been put up [in no partucular order of posting];

 

Fuzzy Royal said he'd heard we were offered a 12 o'clock inspection.

Absolutely NOT. We asked for a later inspection but were refused by the referee.

Fuzzy Royal also said about maybe second-guessing the weather problems.

We can only go by what the Met Office tell us and the forecast was good. As I previously stated there was a frost in Newquay but by 10am the hotel lawn would have taken a stud and the school pitch the players trained on also took a stud and was softening up by the minute!

 

The Hovis Kid said that having nobody at the inspection puts the decision in the hands of the ref influenced by Truro.

The decision IS in the hands of the referee and he is the ONLY PERSON WHO CAN MAKE THAT DECISION. Do we want a repeat of the Gosport fiasco where everone is getting involved? It's not professional and that isn't the way things should be done.

 

Geggy said about officials staying in the area and having 75 minutes to get there for the 11 am inspection.

As far as I'm aware I was the only one staying in the area and having seen the coach and players disappear to training my only options were a bus which takes 80 minutes from Newquay or a taxi which I didn't have enough money for [and before anyone says anything, I don't have any debit or credit cards!] and as no one else was at the hotel I couldn't have borrowed it either. On top of that, although Geggy thought it was 50/50 the referee thought otherwise and wouldn't consider our request for a later inspection.

 

Finally there were various obnoxious comments from Woody who, as usual, is very brave behind a keyboard, but not brave enough to name names.

Woody, I won't answer your comments on a public forum but you are always welcome to make your views known face to face!

[Woody SUFC]

Steve people, not just you, should think ahead. Simple. We all thought of it before and and we're hardly the cleverest people in the world. It's just a sheer lack of planning that is SO frustrating. You must be able to see that?

 

And are you honestly saying Scotty didn't bend the ear ever so slightly of the match officals at gosport?

[Woody SUFC]

Did anyone in the end actually get to the club? As we heard from Geggy and the others that the pitch wasnt AS bad as they told you it was.

 

 

[MISM - WEFC]

i stayed in mullian south of truro and if my geography is correct newquay is north of truro so truro would be in between! both of us had light frost and the ground was hard but by lunch time i was watching a local football match and the ground was fine, and you say a stud would have easily gone in to ground in newquay do you honestly beleive truro had it any worse i for one dont!

[The Hovis Kid]

As the Referee refused a later pitch inspection and left the ground almost immediately after the 11 o

[Windsor_Sec]

A report will be sent to both League and FA detailing the events.

I can almost tell you what the FA reply will be ie the referee has the final say, blah, blah, blah.

Compensation is a matter for the league to decide and having been told to travel then being told about the sudden pitch inspection and refusing to do it later in the day [which was all notified to the league by me as it happened] leads me to think our claim will be successful.

[Doris Wanderer]

Before this goes any further can I just say/add that my frustration is with the lack of WEFC presence for the pitch inspection.

 

I will say though that I would not have expected anyone not paid by the club (and volunteering huge amounts of time and effort) to spend their own money.

 

There are people who are paid by the club, who will no doubt be expressing their disappointment at the game being called off, who did not jump in a cab and "tug on the refs heart strings" at an 11am pitch inspection.

 

That may be an unfair comment..

 

Steve (and Malcolm) plus others, do a cracking job free of charge and that is appreciated.

 

Finally, the pitch was hard at 11:45am and would have been touch and go at 1pm.

 

The head said a postponement was the correct decision, the heart says four banned first team players and a dodgy home record, about to take on top of the league team....well you know.

 

U T R

[Geggy]

Steve, I'm guessing the answer is no, but worth asking nevertheless, but is there anyway this compensation claim can include costs incurred by supporters if they can prove their travel, particularly as supporters also made contact on Friday and was told the game was on and no inspection due.

[Windsor_Sec]

I will enquire about supporters' costs but I wouldn't hold out much hope.

 

Doris, there wasn't anyone else who could have jumped in a cab, as far as I know it was going to be me [already there] plus Brian & Dot Whale travelling to represent the club officially!

 

I think everyone is upset about it [i certainly will be at the end of the month when those two days wages I've lost aren't there!] but in reality I think naivety might possibly be the cause. It's Truros' first season in senior football and maybe on Friday morning they should have said to me the pitch is hard, we'll have an inspection in the morning, travel at your own risk! I don't actually think there's a win-win situation however it was done. An early inspection at 7am to stop people travelling will never work which means people will have made the journey or best part of it before any news filters through. It's just good that we don't have to travel 275 miles every week or this could be a more regular occurrence. I think come the league AGM that rules on pitch inspections may be changed by the members to take this into account though.

[Fuzzy Royal]

Steve, i accept your comment on the first point, i am only going on what i heard and this is the problem here. As for the second point, well i would have thought a light frost, at least 4 players out and Windsor on fire and top of the league a little common sense might tell you that an early pitch inspection when it is at its worst might be called upon. Forward planning was all. I think you will also see that most fans are frustrated with the management as a whole not any particular individuals. As for should it have been off, that is anyone's guess but given the fact we had no presence there Truro could not have had less influence over the ref than us. I hope you can understand our frustration and disappointment that we were powerless to even attend but somebody should have and didn't; if only to confirm we weren't getting taken for a ride(no pun intended).

[Giant Reed]

To "Perfect day"

 

It's such a perfect day,

we put six goals past Slough town....

 

...Whoops....sorry.

 

Wrong thread.

 

Pretend this never happened!

 

Do carry on.

[MISM - WEFC]

its just come to mind my sunday league team knows every week who our ref is and his contact details incase of emergancy surely its the same for a higher level of footbal. could we not have got in contact with the ref that way or kept contact and heard from him as to why we couldnt have a later inspection?

[Dedworth Dog]

I had been happy to leave the last word to Fuzzy Royal as I think his synopsis of the situation from the travelling fans point of view was a good one.

 

However having seen what transpired in the Southend vs Chelsea game last night, a game viewed by millions worldwide on tv, I felt compelled to re-open the debate.

 

For those who don't know, Premiership Full-Time Professional referee Chris Hoy arrived at the ground early. At this point the weather was such that the game could not have taken place. He noted this, the time remaining till Kick Off, and actually decided to abandon the match notifying this decision to the media.

 

After what was described by ITV as "PRESSURE" from the Southend Officials and Staff (nb many of whom were Professional people earning a wage from the club), he relented and reversed the abandonment to wait and see what happened with the weather.

 

The weather continued to improve in the run up to Kick Off and eventually about 15 mins before game time, he deemed that it had improved sufficently to allow the game to take place. For the record Chelsea won a thrilling Cup tie 3 - 1.

 

It strikes me there are a number of interesting points to be taken from this and applied to what happened on Saturday.

 

- Southend a PROFESSIONAL Club didn't consider expressing a forthright view to a PROFESSIONAL match referee as unprofessional

 

- Chris Hoy, a PROFESSIONAL referee, was influenced to the extent that he CHANGED his decision after direct 'pressure' from club officals

 

- Those Club Officals expressing their views to the match referee were actually on-site, allowing them to offer an informed 'on the ground' view of the situation DIRECTLY to him. Face to face.

 

I think it's fair to say that if the Southend Club Offical(s) had been on the phone to Chris Hoy from somewhere on M25 saying "well its not too bad here" they would have got rather short shrift...........

 

With last night's example for how things could have been different fresh in the mind, I think we the travelling supporters have every right to feel short-changed with what happened on Saturday.

 

I appreciate that Truro's mixed messages from Friday to Saturday added significant complications to the situation, but that shouldn't alter the view of what everyone would LIKED to have happened. For the club to choose to hide behind comments such as "not wanting to be unprofessional" and "we are happy we did all we could" simply doesn't wash with me.

 

In conclusion, I would like to urge WEFC to be brave enough to come out offically and make a statement along the lines of "given the great distances involved, with hindsight we regret not being able to have had a presence at the ground for the pitch inspection on Saturday. If a similar situation arises in future we will endeavour to ensure that the same thing doesn't happen again. To all our supporters who made that very long trip on Saturday and feel let down by the club's role in what eventually transpired we apologise"

 

I fear if the club does not aplogise to some degree, then the rift will still lay deeply with those of did make the long trip for some considerable time to come.

 

I will be happy to continue this discussion at Tuesday's game with anyone from the club who would care to speak with me. I would not want to be accussed of hiding behind my keyboard.

[Windsor Rebel]

This reminds me of a few other WEFC "howlers" in the recent past:

1. Running out of beer in the clubhouse against Slough

2. Non payment of fines against Bracknell.

3. Failing to renew bar license for Boxing Day game against Slough.

Surely the WEFC hierarchy should look at those responsible and take the appropriate action, as they are causing WEFC and you guys, the

fans, to lose revenue. Just a thought.

[Woody SUFC]

And a VERY good one!!! All this has been building up for quite some time i think....

 

And we heard of another 'near miss' on tuesday too!

[windsorian]

A good one maybe but a lot of these things maybe remain in the domain of talking to club officials not on a public forum where people other people might be tempted to gloat.

Although i didnt travel and therefore dont appreciate the anger and frustration felt by those that did i do feel that the lessons will be learnt,must have been frustrating for the officials too.

What worries me is that all of this is putting into the shade the tremendous season we are having,top of the league etc.

Talk to the officials concerned on saturday,im sure they are willing to listen.

[Woody SUFC]

Lets not just detract from a great season so far but also the progress the club has made with regards to Ticket offers and fingers crossed the improvements to the bar after a recent meeting we had with Kevin. ( On a side note is the club doing food saturday and has it advertised on the Didcot site this? )

 

It's not all doom and Gloom but we just want whats best for the club as i am sure everyone does. This isn't a personal attack on people. This is about OUR club and what is best for it.

[Woody SUFC]

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/s...ction-incident/

 

"Windsor manager Keith Scott, pictured top right, continues the story:

[Doris Wanderer]

Shall we close this re-opened debate now?

 

I travelled, spent money, didnt see a game, saw the pitch, got frustrated, disappointed, travelled back home etc etc.

 

I have a suggestion....How about the management have a word with the players and agree that by way of compensation the players and management donate 25% of their final weeks pay packet to the "Truro Travellers Postponement Fund"...that yet to be set up fund only to be exchanged for Alcohol in Terry Hall....

 

However, that Fund will be donated to the "Let the players drink as much as they want fund" if we secure the league title on 25th April 2009!!

 

 

[Woody SUFC]

All it would take is "Sorry and it wont happen again we understand where you are coming from and to repay you we will put 6 past slough again"

 

As my near neighbour sang "Sorry seems to be the hardest word"