Groundsman explains the reasons behind the postponements
Shrewsbury Town’s Head Groundsman, Dave Saltman, has explained the decision to postpone Saturday’s game against Peterborough United.
Consistent sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall over the last few days led to a pitch inspection this morning and EFL Referee Rob Lewis made the decision to postpone the game.
This is Town’s second postponement in a few days after Tuesday night’s Checkatrade Trophy Semi-Final against Yeovil Town was called off and Dave spoke to ShrewsWeb to give the reasoning.
“We had the pitch inspection on Tuesday, which we did early so that people weren’t travelling”, said Saltman.
“It was the right decision to make because the pitch was frozen under the covers at the south end and particularly around the corners where the wind was coming in through the stadium, and it’s been getting progressively worse ever since.
“It’s been sub-zero daytime and night time temperatures, you don’t have to look much further than the weather forecast on the TV to see that, and then we’ve also had quite a substantial amount of snow that has been blowing around.
“We’ve struggled to keep covers down in the last 24-hours with the wind blowing around, so more of the pitch is frozen, but it’s also frozen under the covers further down towards the north end as well, so as much as it is unfortunate it was an easy decision for the referee to make this morning.”
Dave Saltman has over 30-years’ experience as a football groundsman and he can’t remember a winter this bad for a long time.
“I only look back two years ago and on the 1st March it was 24 degrees”, Dave said.
“I was praying, given the grass loss we’ve had through January and February, that spring would start early, but at the moment the forecast is saying that it might stay cold for the next couple of weeks.
“We want to avoid a fixture pile-up and at the moment there’s still quite a few midweek slots available, but we can’t beat the weather.
“With the best will in the world we did try to get heated domes in but the only company that really supplies them have five domes in their locker, but all of them are out, so we can’t do any more than what we’ve done.”
If you cannot make the rearranged date then you will be able to get refund by visiting the Ticket Office or by calling 01743 273943