Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones has given his verdict on the late call off of today’s League One match at Crawley Town.
Referee Sunny Singh Gill did more than one pitch inspection as rain fell in West Sussex.
And eventually the official decided the fixture would not be going ahead shortly before kick off and with both sets of players out doing their pre-match warm-ups.
There were boos from the travelling support as it was announced over the public address system that the match was off.
Jones said: “I’m disappointed. We wanted to play the game. One, because we’re in good form and we want the games to come now – we don’t mind that. But also we have got here, prepared and it is such a late call off.
“To be fair to the ref he gave it every chance and his decision was based off the forecast – not the conditions at the time. I’ve played in far worst than that (the conditions at the time).
“He was consistent from the off. He said: ‘If we can’t finish it then I’m very reluctant to start it’. That was probably the decision in the end.
“Whether I agree with it or not doesn’t matter. Our players really wanted to play. Our end of the pitch was actually fine – it was good. It was the bottom end which was the problematic part.
“I have to accept that. I could have said ‘yes’ and fought everything but, at the end of the day, it is the referee’s decision.
“The negative is that it was another opportunity to win a game and we back ourselves to have come here and got a result. What it does do is put that to one side – the benefits are we don’t have to play a game today, we won’t have to be recovering tomorrow and we can train properly.
“Hopefully that stands us in good stead for Saturday.
“I can assure the fans we wanted the game on. We did everything possible to get the game on. We pushed for it. When I was asked I said: ‘We want to play’. Then other factors came into play. I feel for them in terms of the time and cost but also they have come here to support their team and weren’t able to do that.
“We appreciate them coming again to back us on the road and hopefully we can repay them on Saturday.”
Asked if that was the latest he had been involved in a fixture not going ahead, Jones said: “Trust me I’ve had some catasttrophic ones. I’ve travelled to Halifax twice, from Brighton, and had the game called off twice in the same season.
“I remember sitting in a hotel room with a guy, called Steve Milton, and watching the rugby league at The Shay on Friday night and thinking ‘there is absolutely no way this game is going to be played’. We got there and it got called off at 2pm. Then we have got Halifax to Brighton and we did exactly the same on a Tuesday night, went up that morning to the hotel, had a sleep, got up and the game was called off again.
“Someone said there: ‘At least we’re not playing Blackpool’. That’s the only positive.”