Johnboy

I'm not blaming the club, Alex. My understanding is that the Tommy and the club assured the ref that the pitch would be perfectly playable by 1pm. By all accounts they were absolutely right about that, and there was no reason why the game couldn't have played. Unfortunately Herr Hitler thought otherwise.

There's probably some sinister reason for that... ;)

Strange you should say that. This is Richard & Linda Thompson, with Aly Bain on fiddle... Hokey Pokey

Probably only when you attempt to play it....

Yeah.... these orbs are something else! Wtf's an orb?

I've been infected by a few things in my time, but that's not one them.

Alex.... I've now heard from an impeccable source that the pitch was 100% playable by 1pm on Saturday. Apart from the fact that for no good reason, around 3000 folk were denied the opportunity of an afternoon's sporting entertainment, this postponement could very well have a damaging effect on the wee bit of momentum that the team has recently built up in the league. The costs and the inconvenience suffered by all who were making there way to Inverness on Saturday is just not acceptable. Surely someone should be called to account for quite unneccessarily calling the game off at around 11.45am on Saturday morning?

The weather in Inverness was beautiful yesterday.... Perfect conditions for a game of football, and by 3pm the pitch (I'm led to believe) was perfectly playable.

Certainly was an unfortunate chain of events yesterday. Seems there is still some doubt as to whether a local ref carried out a preliminarary inspection at 9.00am (as claimed by Radio Scotland) Obviously the pitch wouldn't have been playable at that time given the heavy overnight frost, so some kind of prediction as to what conditions would be like at 3pm was required. Such a calculation would have had to take the local weather forecast, and the effects of the undersoil heating into account. I would imagine that Tommy and is staff would have been confident the pitch would have been playable by 3pm. Presumably the ref who made the inspection at 11.30am had doubts about that, and took the decision to call it off. By all accounts now, the pitch was absolutely fine by 3pm. It would have surely been much more sensible to defer a decision up until 2.30 - 3.00pm. The QoS team were already in Inverness - as were several fans, who travelled up on Friday to stay overnight. Fans (of both sides) travelling up from the south were pretty close to Inverness by the time the news came through that the game was off. My point is the game should either have been called off on Friday, or at 3pm on Saturday, in the unlikely event that the pitch was unplayable at that time. Calling the game off at around 12noon, did no one any favours at all.

Classic Richard Thompson stuff here, with a girl singer I was madly in love with at the time.

I think by the time 3pm came along it probably was playable.... But ours is not to reason why....

Think there might have been a problem with St Johnstone's USH system... Quote : A statement from Saints read: "St Johnstone Football Club wishes to apologise to all supporters for the late postponement of our game against Rangers FC at McDiarmid Park on Saturday 20th February 2010. "Our undersoil heating was switched on for our midweek game against Hibernian FC and worked perfectly. "The heating was again switched on on Thursday prior to our game today but an area in the penalty box at the Ormond Stand end of the ground was found to be hard. "The match referee, Mike Tumilty, felt that this area could be dangerous for players of both clubs and called the game off. Both managers agreed with the decision

You're probably right, Strathyjags.... One other snippet of information that came out of Chic Young's phone in programme was that a lot of Rangers fans had travelled from places like Inverness, only to find out when they got to Perth, that their game with St Johnstone was off. :021: :015: :015:

So are you suggesting that as we are in Div1, we can't expect the USH to be turned on for as long at takes to make the pitch playable?

Your colleagues at Radio Scotland, via Chic Young's phone in programme are still pedalling the line that the ICT pitch was inspected by a local ref at 9.00am this morning, who was reluctant to make a decision, and chose to leave it up to the match ref to inspect the pitch on his arrival. Are you still prepared to contradict that assertion?

Latest score... Falkirk 3 Aberdeen 1... Anyone care to forecast who the next SPL managerial casualty will be?

Chic Young actually lambasted the your fantasy local ref for bottling a decision at 9.00am, which he claimed would have been of considerable benefit to travelling QOS fans.

As a said in my recent post... "misinformation, confusion and downright fantasy". You should take that one up with your colleagues on Radio Scotland, from whom I was quoting, Charles...

It was discussed on Stuart and Tam's show on Radio Scotland. Half the QOS support were already at Aviemore by the time news came through that the game was off. Apparently a local ref did make an inspection at 9.00am, but was reluctant to make a decision, and said it would be up to the match ref. That was why there was a delay before the actual match ref arrived and took the decision to call it off. It's all very unfortunate but there must surely be a better way of handling these things. It always seems like no one gives a damn about the fans.

You would have thought so, wouldn't you? I'm wondering if our groundstaff/management/players, etc, are in agreement with the referees decision...

That message is still on the official site about the undersoil heating : See 3rd line down!

http://www.ictfc.co.uk/articles/20100219/i...2208825_1971301 :( They've had a message on that site for the past 24 hours now saying that the USH is on...

My car temperature guage is indicating a healthy +1degree C... Surely USH should be able to cope with that. You've got to feel gutted for all the QOS supporters that made the trip up last night, from Dumfries, and all those presently on their way.

L_G says it's off.... She knows everything!

Feck it.... Couldn't they have turned the heating on earlier?