Officials' on the end of cold blast from Francis

The second round tie had already been postponed twice due to waterlogged pitches at Champion Hill, but tonight’s late postponement could have been handled better.

Here in Kent, Folkestone Invicta, Whitstable Town, Erith & Belvedere and Tunbridge Wells had all called in local qualified officials to inspect their pitches and by half past one this afternoon, all these clubs confirmed that their games had been postponed due to frozen pitches.

Despite London and the South East of England enduring temperatures that were colder than parts of the Antarctic, with recorded temperatures of -10C, Dulwich Hamlet called their pitch inspection for 3pm and an unnamed official had actually PASSED the pitch playable following his inspection.

Dulwich Hamlet officials declined to tell www.kentishfootball.co.uk the name of the referee that inspected the poor playing surface at 3pm - or the match referee that called the game off following his inspection. The time was 18:18 when the referee officially called the game off.

Had the south London club followed in the footsteps of each and every other Ryman League club and called a pitch inspection earlier in the day, than no-one would have been inconvenienced.

But for assistant manager Francis, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk in the clubhouse following the late postponement, he made it very clear who he felt was to blame for the club’s costly wasted trip into south London.

“Extremely, f*****g angry, extremely angry,” he snapped.

“We’ve had to organise alternative training facilities, which has cost us over a hundred quid. We had to cancel that, players have had to give up time for a game that was never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to be on in a thousand years!

“Every other game in the country has been called off - so it’s an absolute shambles!

“I blame the referee that came over here this afternoon and said in bright sunshine the pitch is going to be playable, when we all knew, it’s minus ten, it’s been minus ten!"

Francis revealed Cray were going to field a strong side tonight, giving star-striker Shawn Beveney an opportunity to regain match fitness following his knee medial ligament injury.

“We would have played people like Shawn Beveney and young Richmond (Kissi) up front, give them some game time,” revealed Francis. “Other than that, it would have been a strong side.”

Francis, meanwhile, was pleased with the point his side picked up in frosty conditions at Merstham on Saturday, but knows the off-colour Wands must pick up three points in their next game - at home to Leatherhead on Sunday.

However, despite their bad spell, the Wands are in third place in the Ryman League Division One South table, just three points adrift of long-term leaders Kingstonian, although the K’s have three games in hand over the Hayes Lane club.

“We played very well in the first 45 minutes,” reflected Francis. “Unfortunately we had an iffy twenty minute spell - and we’re conceding in those iffy spells at the moment.

“But it’s a little nugget, it’s a draw, it’s a point, a point away from home. Who knows, we might need it at the end of the year.”

The Tanners arrive at Hayes Lane sitting in 16^th place in the table, having picked up just one point from their last five outings.

“We need to get a win. Simple as that!” said Francis. “We’re confident on getting a win.

“We expect a normal Ryman One Division One South home game, competitive. We’ve got to be at our best.

“We need three points, but you build on the game before. It’s a point that we got away from home. We’ve got to back it up with three now.”

Lessons can be learnt from tonight’s farce at Champion Hill. Bar staff should be clued up on what to say to supporters - or football reporters - when they’re quizzed, face-to-face about games going ahead or not.

Despite the pitch plunged into darkness and no sign of the three match officials to make the pitch inspection, one woman claimed that the match was “on” - when it was clear that no inspection had yet taken place.

Had www.kentishfootball.co.uk informed supporters that tonight’s game was in fact going ahead, many more people would have had to endure the same wasteful journey as the rest of us faced.

Meanwhile, when asked whether Beveney will either start against Leaterhead, or start the game on the substitutes bench, Francis added, “Watch this space!”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering Sunday’s game against Leatherhead - if it goes ahead - and will be informing supporters if it doesn’t.

Visit Cray Wanderers website: www.craywands.co.uk

Cray Wanderers v Leatherhead
Ryman League Division One South
Sunday 11^th January 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF