Rovers are a disgrace!

Well wasn’t that a waste of a day then.

We made late arrangements to make the three hour trip to Bristol, and leaving Offerton at 9:30 the thought didn’t even cross our mind that the game would be off.

Going through Birmingham it was bucketing it down, but once we got through Birmingham the rain eased off and the roads were dry.

But when I got a text from one of my mates at 11:30 saying there was a pitch inspection we started to worry, ringing the other lad we were meeting there to see what if he could find something out. He said its bone dry in Bristol so there shouldn’t be a problem.

We parked up at Tesco at about 12:30ish and went to get some lunch, BBC Bristol had there sport round up at 12:05 and didn’t even mention a pitch inspection.

However, the phone rang at 1pm and somebody informed me that at the end of Football Focus it said the game had been postponed.

At first we were amused. We couldn’t help but laugh. It’s just one of those things, but we decided to drive up to the ground and have a look at the pitch in the knowledge that Bristol Rovers have got a game against Bristol City on Tuesday night in the regional final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Driving up the hill towards the ground, we noticed the County team coach behind us. We thought two things. 1) The team didn’t know the game was off, or 2) Jim was fuming and wanted to carry on.

We parked up in the car park and went into the ground, walked down the terrace and the pitch looked fine. Jim then stormed past at some pace and didn’t look happy. The players walked into the ground in dribs and drabs, and Elding couldn’t believe the game was off (even though he refused to go on the pitch in his new white trainers).

Walking out onto the pitch it was absolutely fine underfoot. There were a few muddy areas but nothing that couldn’t be sorted. Apparently there were no covers put on overnight despite the forecast of rain.

Rodger Wylde was speaking to us and said we’d played on worse than this at Shrewsbury and Watford. Peter Ward also couldn’t believe the game was off, whilst Jim Gannon and director David James were frantically trying to track down the referee who had convenientally left the ground.

The ref came back in and Jimbo went straight across towards him to discuss the situation, we walked abit further into the middle of the pitch and where it looked like it was wet from a distance it was actually only a little puddle.

The groundsman then asked us to get off the pitch, two remarks came back from the three of us. The one from me was ‘Yep, your saving it for Tuesday’, the one from another lad was ‘Its the only decent part’. The groundsman seemed to take offence and said ‘You haven’t been working on it since 6am’. ‘Neither have you, and I woke up at 6am to come down here’ was the answer back, and he walked off not very happy.

Gannon returned from the referee and didn’t look happy. The referee left the ground and Jim then had a discussion with the Bristol manager who didn’t look bothered by any of it.

And that was it. What else could you do? The club would be lodging a complaint but its a wasted journey at the end of the day.

Remember. Bristol Rovers V Bristol City. Tuesday. Full stadium. Path to Cardiff. Why injure key players and ruin the pitch? How convenient.