IT was akin to a scene from a Norman Wisdom film. But even the slapstick comedy legend, a cult hero in Albania, would have struggled to think this one up.
Kidderminster Harriers midfielder James Vincent got it right: “When the water started coming up through the showers I knew we were fighting a losing battle,” he quipped.
If the chances of getting the friendly against Albania U21s on the sodden Niko Dovana pitch in Durres were already dead from drowning, the flooding of the changing rooms and tunnel was the time to call for the lifeboats.
Who’d have thought the only water England C had seen in the day was on Monday when an unnamed player, some would have you believe it was Luton’s Andre Gray, squirted bottled water on the sunbathing staff below?? The players had even taken a stroll on the beach.
True it had rained through the night and a quick viewing of the pitch the day before had shown it would be heavy.
Surreal
But the torrential downpour that started just 20 minutes before the team departed their beachfront facing hotel did the damage.
“It was a surreal situation,” said boss Paul Fairclough. “During the team meeting just before we left I did say, ‘If it’s on’.
“We’d had a good couple of days and I was really keen to get going again. But to be faced with that situation, I’ve never had that before. I’ve never known anything like it. I don’t think anyone has.”
The warning signs were there when the coach arrived at a car park increasingly resembling a pond. Once the squad were inside they started to get ready while the referee inspected the pitch.
The ball moved a yard, just. That didn’t stop him from doing that thing referees do where they try another part of the pitch. Same result. With the rain still hammering down, a puddle on the far side grew and the running track around the pitch began to take on a moat-like form.
By now the tunnel area was filling up. A situation not helped by a local who wanted to get as close to the front door as possible by driving her car within a metre, so sending a tidal wave cascading inside.
Health & Safety was clearly not at the top of the agenda. Eletrical wires were “swimming around like eels” as Fairclough put it, while an antique fire engine clearly thought everything was under control by leaving as soon as it had arrived, supposedly to pump water out.
So, game off. But wait. The Albanians think there might be another pitch in another town nearby that could be playable. At least the rain had relented by now.
The fully-kitted squad tip-toed through the water and back onto the coach ready while the management team contemplated how best to keep the players’ nutritional levels up.
But before long the mystery pitch was ruled out. A battle through the gridlocked streets under police escort delivered a frustrated team back to the hotel.
Time to look at the positives.
“Something good always comes out of everything regardless. It’s how you turn it,” Fairclough said. “It’s not the cards you’re dealt, it is how you play them.
“The camaraderie among the players has increased. Even though we didn’t get on the pitch you could see a level of understanding we haven’t had before.
“So it’s never wasted because there are always fringe benefits. These lads do tend to leave a closeted life at home. They get up, they go to training, they come home, play on their machines and they don’t see enough of life.
“To bring them away and for them to see what it is like in other places…there are parts of this country that are bordering on third world. I think some have had their eyes opened.
“We also had a meeting where they set themselves personal goals. I’ve got all those and I’ll remind them when I go to see them at their clubs through the season.
“That’s a really deep thought process. You challenge these lads to say, ‘What do I need to get onto another level?’
“They are capable but sometimes lads don’t progress because they don’?t tackle what’s important. It is important they gave it some thought. We try and give them something to leave with and I think that will be key for them.”
So instead of trying to build on their fine win last month in Belgium, it was a night watching the England seniors take on Poland.
Surely that wouldn’t be postponed because of rain, would it!?
