Concord Rangers chairman Ant Smith told fans they did all they could to get Saturday’s FA Trophy with Royston Town before tonight’s rescheduled quarter-final kicked off successfully.
As reported in The Non-League Paper on Sunday, the highly-anticipated last-eight clash was called off at 2pm by referee Samuel Barrott, just minutes after senior NLP writer Dave Richardson witnessed six coach loads of visiting Crows supporters arriving.
It was the first match in two years to be postponed at the Aspect Arena due to a waterlogged pitch depite chief Smith and his ground staff having worked tirelessly to make the surface playable.
“We worked on it last night and took a couple of puddles off,” he told The NLP. “We knew there was going to be no rain overnight and a bit of rain this morning.
A place in the Semi-final awaits… ? #FATrophy #ConcordMatchday #YAMC ?? pic.twitter.com/mjbzf5Yrz4
— Concord Rangers FC (@ConcordRangers) March 3, 2020
“I was here at 6.30am with a couple of others. We worked really hard and got all the water off. Unfortunately, at about 10.30am we had a hailstorm and some rain and that put paid to it.
“The ref originally arrived at I think it was about 12.15pm. His demeanour at the time was he wasn’t going to play it. He said to us try and have a go on two patches that were under consideration.
“He came back out at 1pm and said I’ll give you till quarter to. He said the ball had to bounce six inches. He bounced it in about four places and in one of those it didn’t bounce and he made his decision from there.
“We probably expected to get somewhere around 1,200 today. Really disappointed for both sets of fans. We’ll probably be lucky if we get 600 on Tuesday.”
Royston manager Steve Castle added: “I arrived early and the first person I saw was the referee, who showed his doubts. He wanted my opinion, I wasn’t going to give it because it’s for him to make the decision.
“Later on in the dialogue he said outright what do I think and I said it’s wet, which is probably as obvious as the day’s long.
“It’s just took the gloss off it for both clubs. We can’t help the weather but at the same time had we known a bit earlier it would have been a bit easier to bear.”
Make sure you get your copy of The Non-League Paper on Sunday for the latest news and action from across Non-League over the last seven days.
As well as exclusive match reports and pictures from all of Saturday’s fixtures in the Vanarama National League, the BetVictor-Sponsored Isthmian League, Southern League and Northern Premier League, The Non-League Paper’s live coverage extends all the way to Steps 5 and 6.
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