Rage Online

Looking at the forecast, this game must be in serious danger today.

Well that was a waste of New Year's morning. Six and a half hours on our railway network without a football match to watch (and with a hangover). The postponement was such an inevitability that I should have stayed at home, but with a match ticket in my pocket for a friend already in Wales, I couldn't risk not travelling.

Oh well, at least I didn't watch a third defeat in a week. See you all at Charlton...

Having spent NYE in the Llanelli Cross Hands Hotel I was amazed it took as long as it did to call the game off. Water everywhere here in South Wales.

Rearranged game on Tuesday 18th February.

I see that Newport have had yet another home game postponed tonight - their sixth in seven scheduled fixtures. I wonder what the chances of our re-arranged game next week being on are? And I wonder how long the league will let this go on before ordering Newport to play their games elsewhere? I read somewhere that they asked Wimbledon to switch tonight's fixture to Kingsmeadow but the Dons declined.

Just seen they are doing extreme remedial works on their pitch. A
Bloke with mini digger is digging a trench into the pitch.https://twitter.com/_MarkJones/status/4 ... 92/photo/1

I appreciate that no club can control the weather, and division four clubs can't afford the best pitch facilities, but when we fulfil our fixtures despite a massive injury list, when other clubs get to reschedule games until after transfer windows and recuperation periods have passed, it smells a bit off.

Fixture congestion might be one issue, but having no fit players is a worse one...

slappy wrote:Just seen they are doing extreme remedial works on their pitch. A
Bloke with mini digger is digging a trench into the pitch.

We have London Welsh to do that for us...

The last time I posted on this thread was just after NYE, and since then I’ve been to South Wales four times and on each occasion it’s hardly stopped raining. If you think it’s wet here in Oxfordshire then look at the rainfall stats further West over the border.

Are there any FA rules about pitch conditions and sanctions/alternative arrangement as there must come a point when things get silly?

It’s amazing that given the weather conditions and the egg chasers on the pitch at Minchery that Oxford United have still have a playable bit of grass - so well done to the ground staff I say (along with the open West End and the wind to help blow away the moisture)

Down the road at CPF Oxford City seem overwhelmed and under-prepared/underfunded/misguided and it may eventually cost them their place in the Conference at this rate.

Myles Francis wrote:

slappy wrote:Just seen they are doing extreme remedial works on their pitch. A
Bloke with mini digger is digging a trench into the pitch.

We have London Welsh to do that for us...

Newport share their pitch with TWO different rugby teams - one of them had a home game postponed on Sunday.

I know it's been wet further west - I live about as far west as you can get, and the weather is horrendous again this week. But Torquay managed to get a game on last night, Plymouth, Exeter and even Bristol Rovers (who also share with a rugby team) have just about kept up with only one or two postponements. Newport's pitch is clearly not up to scratch for league football. Little chance of next week's game going ahead I'd say - we're expecting a month's worth of rain in the next 5 days down here, and must have had a week's worth this morning already!

4G astro anyone?

Anyone who's played on the latest astro pitches must accept they are nothing like the old Luton/QPR/PNE horrors of 20-30 years ago.

The one at my son's school is an absolute joy to play on, like the lushest grass you can imagine, no astro burns if you slide, a soft landing if you fall, and it makes even my first touch look good.

Think of how much more we could use the Kassam for training, for reserve matches, Oxfordshire cup, Women's, Youth team and even Raging Fever if we had a 4G.

Just an idea, not just for us, but for all clubs at our level and below. Would virtually eliminate postponements, and it would mean bloody rugby wouldn't darken our stadium again.

I would think that this is putting a real strain on Newport's finances as possibly costing them a possibility of being in the play offs (I assume that the number of games in a short period of time will count against them)

Another 2-3 postponements and surely the League must start pressing for a change in location for the games? I expect that Newport and Charlton are ruing the fact that it is one of the wettest winters ever.

Re 4G: I've seen Queen of the South play at home a few times this season and as much as 4g might be a joy to play on, it isn't much fun to watch. I saw them away on a totally soaked pitch at Dundee earlier in the season and it was a far more enjoyable experience than watching lower level professional overcook passes on a very bouncy and extremely fast brand new 4g surface.

Maidstone Utd have a 4G pitch and do very well out of it - in use all week round and a nice little income earner. However, the conference won´t let them be promoted as the pitches must be grass, as is the case in the football league I beleive.

What is good enough for the Champions league isn´t sufficient for the Conference apperently, but we all knew BL was on another planet.

https://twitter.com/_MarkJones/status/4 ... 13/photo/1
This was taken yesterday. Surely that won't be playable by Tuesday?