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Stranraer v Brechin


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Don't see a thread for this. Important game for both teams and a crazy decision to go ahead with the game. Anyone who thinks a forecast of 60/70 mph winds will be wrong enough to allow a proper football match to take place is kidding themselves on. I stay close to the ground and the forecast is clearly going to be pretty close to the mark. Not trying to put folk off travelling through but its not worth taking a risk purely for a football match which will be no spectacle and might get abandoned. There is space in the calendar to play this match another time. 

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Feel sorry for anyone who started to make their way for a game that was never ever likely to be played - pure  madness. That is not being wise after the event - was blatantly obvious and there is something well wrong with the procedures that it wasn't cancelled at 3.30 pm or earlier.   

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The Brechin team bus was 11 miles from Stranraer when they got the news. Absolutely ridiculous that it wasn't called off this morning when the weather forecast even had warnings of disruption to travel. This has cost us money we could ill afford to lose.
I decided last night not to travel after the weather forecast. Surely common sense should have stepped in to avoid this.


Sorry - I forgot the SPFL were involved - not much common sense there!

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Sorry - I forgot the SPFL were involved - not much common sense there!


It's not the SPFL's fault.

It's either the hosting club's fault for failing to organise an earlier pitch inspection or a ref who passed the pitch playable earlier in the day only for it to go tits up with the weather changing dramatically.
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I get the fact clubs can't cancel matches. So a local ref has a look prior to the match ref arriving BUT is the local ref purely expected to merely look at the state of the pitch at that particular point in time or is he also able to take account of extreme weather forecasts like tonight's (which are never COMPLETELY wrong)? If its the former then that is where the problem lies. Ridiculous in this day and age when the forecast ain't even questionable. 

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Sorry for Brechin and anyone who travelled. I decided not to travel from glasgow this morning. As tucker says this was never going to be on. Every computer model forecasted storms. Oh and btw this wasnt Stranraers fault. Both clubs out of pocket. Blame decision making 85 miles away. Lets wait for the match referee. Absolutely clueless in Glasgow sometimes.

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4 minutes ago, Blue1870 said:

Sorry for Brechin and anyone who travelled. I decided not to travel from glasgow this morning. As tucker says this was never going to be on. Every computer model forecasted storms. Oh and btw this wasnt Stranraers fault. Both clubs out of pocket. Blame decision making 85 miles away. Lets wait for the match referee. Absolutely clueless in Glasgow sometimes.

I disagree. This storm has been forecast for days.  Surely Stranraer could have asked the SPFL for the game to be moved back a week considering the distance factor for the away side. 

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8 minutes ago, tuckersloan said:

I get the fact clubs can't cancel matches. So a local ref has a look prior to the match ref arriving BUT is the local ref purely expected to merely look at the state of the pitch at that particular point in time or is he also able to take account of extreme weather forecasts like tonight's (which are never COMPLETELY wrong)? If its the former then that is where the problem lies. Ridiculous in this day and age when the forecast ain't even questionable. 

The SFA and refs don't  want to trust  technology in the Scottish game  so there is little chance that they are going to trust the various weather forecasting systems , no matter how reliable they are. 

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29 minutes ago, Blue1870 said:

You can disagree all you want i'm only telling you what i got told by a stranraer official.

We saw an earlier tweet. ..........and seemingly  the sfa were compliant in the decision but they are only guided by information given by the home club and the ref doing an inspection. 

 

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To call the game of so late is absolute madness given the forecast but its expected these days, zero common sense from the authorities who should have made the decision hours ago based on the forecast alone! I'm surprised our game is on at Bayview, wouldn't be shocked if its abandoned once the game starts!

 

 

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You can disagree all you want i'm only telling you what i got told by a stranraer official.
He's lying.

It's the home club's responsibility to organise a pitch inspection at a suitable time. That decision doesn't come from Hampden, or wherever the hell the SPFL are based.

If a ref passed the pitch after an earlier inspection, without taking into consideration the forecast, then technically it would that refs fault.
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I disagree. This storm has been forecast for days.  Surely Stranraer could have asked the SPFL for the game to be moved back a week considering the distance factor for the away side. 

Stranraer have been in contact with both Brechin City and SPFL since Monday morning. There has been regular communication.
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Just now, Blue Moon said:


Stranraer have been in contact with both Brechin City and SPFL since Monday morning. There has been regular communication.

That all depends what was said between clubs .   Going by the Stranraer match preview they were hoping that the forecast was wrong so it looks as if they were trying to play down the chance of a storm approaching.    I would have thought the weather last night (while watching the St Mirren/ Killie game )  might have been an indication that the forecast was right. 

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That all depends what was said between clubs .   Going by the Stranraer match preview they were hoping that the forecast was wrong so it looks as if they were trying to play down the chance of a storm approaching.    I would have thought the weather last night (while watching the St Mirren/ Killie game )  might have been an indication that the forecast was right. 

Not trying to play anything down. We saw the forecast same as everyone else. Discussed with SPFL and Brechin and everyone knew about risk to the fixture.
What we did was inspect at 10am, 12 noon and 3.30pm and on each occasion, as the forecasted weather had yet to arrive, the pitch and conditions were playable.
Could have called in a referee on each occasion and it would have passed fit.
A local referee was on standby after the third inspection should things have deteriorated but this was superseded when the match referee arrived early and inspected, postponing the fixture at around 5.30pm.

We followed the rules and protocols available to us. Not sure what else is expected.
Incidentally the same rules and protocols that Arbroath followed when we travelled there last month. So we have experienced this from the away side perspective too.

If the rules are wrong, that’s a different conversation, and one for the clubs to have, but as they are we followed them.
Can’t see what more our club could have done in today’s circumstances.
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Interesting if games were postponed on the basis of forecast then six matches would have been postponed tonight. That would have been five bad decisions!
Making decisions on forecasts isn’t guaranteed to be correct either and does open a Pandora’s box

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Am not sure the forecasts were just as severe in the other 5 areas though  and in many cases the stadiums not as exposed to the elements. 

Indeed they were similar but not exactly the same. Brings in the questions about what the criteria would be for postponing on weather forecast? Would it be uniform given each ground has unique geographical features, quirks and idiosyncrasies?
Oh and who would decide.... as I say a Pandora’s Box.
Pun intended [emoji4]
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7 hours ago, Blue Moon said:


Indeed they were similar but not exactly the same. Brings in the questions about what the criteria would be for postponing on weather forecast? Would it be uniform given each ground has unique geographical features, quirks and idiosyncrasies?
Oh and who would decide.... as I say a Pandora’s Box.
Pun intended emoji4.png

I think what people are saying here is that given all the exceptional circumstances , common sense should have prevailed  and it didn't. 

It was a Tuesday night. Players , staff and committee had to take time off work to travel and will have to do so again .  Add to that the possibility of road closures and the safety aspect , due to the storm  and of course the financial consequences for both clubs. 

Yes Stranraer followed the guidelines and criteria but (given the near certainty that the storm was going to hit that part of the west coast late afternoon  ) to ask for the game to be moved to next week  wouldn't have been unreasonable.  

 

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