Tuesday night’s game falls foul of the weather
Tuesday night’s scheduled trip to the Weston Homes Community Stadium to take on Colchester United has fallen foul of the weather.
There was concern yesterday about state of the pitch at Colchester and an early morning inspection was arranged for Tuesday. This initial inspection and the weather forecast meant that there was enough optimism for a late inspection.
Match referee Gary Sutton got to Colchester early but his inspection at 3:30pm saw him take the early decision to postpone the game.
He told Colchester’s official website: "A lot of thought has gone into this decision, it is not just a case of turning up and calling it off.
"The whole process started yesterday morning when the club said they had concerns with the condition of the pitch and upcoming weather forecast.
"A local referee came in this morning to take a look and he then passed on his observations to the Football League.
"At the time, it was a chance it could improve and the groundstaff had worked hard and done a sterling job to try and improve it over the past 48 hours.
"We tried to give it a chance, and I subsequently came in to take a look.
"I have had a look around and spoken to both managers, and whilst they were important in making my judgement, it was my call.
"There are areas where it's 'bottomless ground' and my thoughts were of players' safety. We didn't want to gamble someone's safety on those areas.
"What's more, if we got any rain, that would have wiped us out completely."