Senior's frustration after Bees' derby no-go (From Dorset Echo)

Senior's frustration after Bees' derby no-go

5:48pm Sunday 10th February 2013 in Football By David Williams, Sports Reporter

FRUSTRATED, puzzled and generally cheesed off was how Trevor Senior felt following the late postponement of Bridport’s home clash with Gillingham Town on Saturday.

It was about an hour before kick-off when the match referee decided that a small portion of the St Mary’s Field pitch was not safe enough to allow the game to go ahead.

Both sides wanted to play the Tool-station Western Premier Division fixture but the referee was having none of it.

Speaking to Echosport about the situation, Bees boss Senior said: “There was an area of the pitch, a circle, I suppose about five foot across, which was a bit soft and that was the referee’s main concern.

“We had put sand on it and accept there was quite a bit of give but it was probably about one or two per cent of the whole pitch.

“There were a couple of other areas of the pitch the referee mentioned later but that small circle was the main reason he called the game off.

“Everyone had a story to tell about playing on a pitch worse than that but he wasn’t having any of it so we had to pack up and go home.

“If we had got a local referee in the morning I can’t imagine he would have said the game was going to be called off.

“Both sets of players wanted to play the game but he said it was his responsibility and if someone broke their leg in that area it would be his neck on the line.

“I know he has got to cover himself and that’s the way the world is.

“Both sets of players were prepared to sign a document that wouldn’t have held the referee responsible but it doesn’t work that way.”

He continued: “A lot goes into putting games on and our groundsman did a lot of work on the pitch before.

“One of the ironic things is that some of us went to watch the second half at Dorchester and their pitch was like a ploughed field but they played the game and that’s Confer-ence South standard.

“There is no consistency. If things were consistent I could understand it.

“The frustrating thing is we went to Willand at the end of last year and the pitch didn’t look playable.

“We both wanted to play it and the referee was completely different to Saturday. The ball was hardly bouncing and they beat us 4-0 but we got the game on.

“We had a rearranged game at Brislington last season and it was nearly called off but both managers got together and spoke to the referee and he changed his mind.

“You get to the end of the season and pitches at our level have hardly any grass on them and are bone hard and I think that’s more dangerous than a bit of give in a playing surface.”

Bridport go to Ilfracombe Town tomorrow night (7.45pm) in a game that was originally postponed on New Year’s Day.