Bath City FC vs Ebbsfleet Utd | Fixture Postponement update

A frustrating day all round for us as a club, Ebbsfleet United and the supporters of both teams, as on Friday evening we had genuine hopes that the game today could go ahead.  A heavier frost than expected overnight led to a lot of back and forth, and sometimes frank opinions. We have heard from Ebbsfleet United and are pleased to hear that they are also in agreement with the decision to call the game off.  We accept that an earlier decision could have been helpful; however, we are confident we followed all the protocols.

Events of the day:

The pitch was assessed at 9.00 am today, and this revealed that the overnight frost was much heavier than forecasted and the pitch was now frozen in places.  In our opinion, both looking at the forecast for the rest of the day and taking into account the short daylight hours at this time of year, it was felt that there was now at a high risk of the match suffering postponement.  With the match referee 3 hours away, a decision was taken to bring in a local referee to carry out an inspection.

At 10.30 am, a local referee arrived to carry out an inspection.  Although he agreed the pitch was indeed frozen, he decided against calling the match off, preferring to wait until the arrival of the match referee to give the match every chance of going ahead.

At 1.15 pm, the match referee arrived and duly called the game off.

Bath City FC would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused, and we regret that the game could not go ahead as scheduled.  It is never easy to balance the aim to get a game played and trying to postpone at the earliest opportunity to give supporters as much notice as possible.  Given the uncertainty that remained at the point of the first referee inspection, despite our own doubts, it would proceed, we believe that we acted correctly.  Sadly, the weather overnight got the better of the situation, and whilst the path to that decision had differing opinions, both clubs are 100% in agreement that the right decision was made for player welfare.

Details of the rearrangement will be provided at the earliest opportunity.