NLP says… consider fitting pitch inspections around the journey times for away supporters

By Alex Narey
To postpone or not postpone… that is the question. Everyone pipes up with an opinion when it comes to the dreaded pitch inspection and the rights and wrongs of giving in to the elements. It’s just a horrible trait of Non-League football that it leaves itself open to the perils of the weather, but although there had been severe warnings all week, many clubs were still calling games off on Saturday as late as 2.15pm.
Quite frankly, you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t. Primarily, fans will argue that, at all costs, everything should be done to ensure a fixture is given the green light. But when the game is postponed, those same fans will be calling for heads if the decision has been made, in their eyes, too late.
There are lots of theories on how we should counter this; one is to suggest a qualified referee should inspect the pitch and make the call before the away supporters have set off; another is that any early pitch inspection should take into account the impending weather forecast.
For me, it’s quite simple, and for this example we’ll stick with the National League where travel still plays such a determining factor. There should be set times outlined by the leagues that take into account the travel the away fans have to make. Split the inspections into two blocks; an early inspection – pre 9am – for any travel of over 150 miles from ground to ground; a late inspection – say 12.30 – for shorter-haul journeys.
I know if we went down this route there may be more fixtures called off than before, but if there are clear and realistic guidelines then at least the punters will know where they stand. If a ground is deemed unplayable and not at the standard required by these cut-off times, then the fixture should rightly be postponed. In even more severe cases, the game should be postponed earlier.
There is one other point to consider here. Too many fans and supporters are suckered into believing a fixture will go ahead when clearly it is very unlikely to. Pictures posted on social media don’t even begin to tell the full story, and a club secretary or press officer going out to stick a fork in the pitch is not an ‘inspection’. A local referee should always make the call and clubs should at no point post tweets or statements about the possibility of a fixture going ahead when it isn’t confirmed to do so.
Gateshead played it perfectly at the weekend. With Woking the visitors, Heed officials conducted a pitch inspection on Friday afternoon. At that point, the pitch was deemed playable but with thick overnight frost and snow expected, an 8am pitch inspection on the Saturday would determine whether the game could go ahead. It didn’t, and whatever numbers of Woking fans had planned to make the trip to the north-east, you would hope they hadn’t got too far up the M1 by the time the news broke, if even across the Surrey border.
By and large, clubs have the best interests of the fans at heart. They want the game to go ahead and in some cases push the inspection back until the last minute. But by adopting straightforward and simple rules, more fans will know where they stand in the long run.