| MATCH OFF 11:17 - Feb 3 with 6043 views | Zx1988 |
Waterlogged pitch.
[Post edited 3 Feb 11:18]
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| MATCH OFF on 12:06 - Feb 3 with 1068 views | bsw72 |
| MATCH OFF on 11:40 - Feb 3 by grow_our_own |
Can anyone explain to me why a simple rain-cover can't prevent these waterlogged pitches? I don't get it. If I wear a waterproof jacket, I don't get wet. If heavy rain is forecast, and you know the susceptibility of your pitch, then you roll-out a cheap (few grand) rain cover, surely? What am I missing? |
You're considerably smaller than a football pitch.
A full-pitch plastic sheet is large, heavy, costly to buy and handle, a full pitch is typically ~100–110 × 64–75 m (6,400–8,250 m²). A heavy-duty weatherproof sheet for that area is large and heavy - weighing ~5 tonnes for heavy duty tarp.
It's then risky in wind, hard to anchor without damaging turf, only prevents new rain (doesn’t remove existing groundwater), and creates agronomic problems (condensation, disease, shading).
For that reason clubs should have drainage improvements. |  | | |
| MATCH OFF on 12:07 - Feb 3 with 1046 views | peterleeblue |
| MATCH OFF on 12:02 - Feb 3 by tractorshark |
Nothing to do with entitled. Everything to do with lost income and holiday.
I can’t afford to chuck money down the drain because a club in the second tier of English football won’t invest in their pitch. |
Yep feel your pain but I guess has to be priced into being a loyal football supporter.
Covering significant miles all over the country will be fraught with pitfalls - I guess this is one of them. |  | | |
| MATCH OFF on 12:08 - Feb 3 with 1043 views | Samuelowen88 |
| MATCH OFF on 12:05 - Feb 3 by algy |
As the climate change conspiracists would have it, there's no longer "freak weather" just the new normal. |
Climate change conspiracists? Oh jeez |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:08 - Feb 3 with 1021 views | baxterbasics |
| MATCH OFF on 12:03 - Feb 3 by baxterbasics |
Why not delay kickoff by 20 mins, issue every fan at the ground a waterpistol which they can go onto the pitch and fill using any standing water. Have a big water fight outside of the ground. et voila! Or sponges, that might work too. |
Or, howabout a giant blower like the one that scans across your car in the carwash. |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:10 - Feb 3 with 1011 views | Guthrum |
| MATCH OFF on 11:49 - Feb 3 by vilanovablue |
If there is nowhere for the water to drain which given the amount of rain down here on the coast in Jan and now Feb has been a lot. There really isn't a lot that can be done. |
That was the problem we had in the West in 2007. It rained very hard on the day, but that was on top of ground still soaked from a couple of weeks earlier. Everything just overflowed. |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:10 - Feb 3 with 1014 views | JackNorthStand |
With the money and resources in football - is it reasonably practicable to cover pitches if heavy, sustained rain is expected ? The water could then run off into a designated area and be pumped away. [Post edited 3 Feb 12:11]
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| MATCH OFF on 12:12 - Feb 3 with 997 views | DJR |
| MATCH OFF on 11:45 - Feb 3 by tractorshark |
I’m bothered. That’s 2 days holiday I’ve already wasted on this fixture plus my expenses the first time around.
We went to Fratton Park at 2pm on the Sunday on the first game and there was no hint of frost around the ground.
Sun was out and the pitch at one end looked fine through the gap in the gates. Couldn’t see the whole pitch so maybe there were other areas more affected. But I think they called that off way too soon.
Ipswich must be fuming. That’s 2 days of overnight stays, travelling etc wasted. |
It cost me the price of a rail ticket first time (I didn't go all the way but got off at Gatwick). And two of my friends stayed the night before.
This time it's the (this late) non-refundable cost of a hotel room, and the admin fee I will pay for trading in my off-peak return,
I plan to go to the third game, but I do think those who tried to go to all three games deserve an extra away point, just as those who went to both the original and replayed Blackburn game got an extra point. |  | | |
| MATCH OFF on 12:16 - Feb 3 with 955 views | bsw72 |
| MATCH OFF on 11:39 - Feb 3 by algy |
You can't build an indoor stadium in 8 hours! It's an outdoor sport played on grass
The level of entitled whinging we're getting this season from Town followers over postponements is to use a word some of them use, embarrassing. Whinge when a game is abandoned, whinge when a game is called off "late", whinge when a game is called off "early". Whine whinge whinge. Pathetic entitlement |
That's not entitlement - this is a professional multi-billion pound sport played through the winter months - rainfall and sub zero weather is the norm.
I would expect clubs in the top 2 professional English tiers to have the playing facilities to cope with some adverse weather. To not be able to cope with rainfall from what is NOT considered a winter storm is very very poor.
If clubs are unable to regularly fulfil fixtures, then they should be held accountable. | | | |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:20 - Feb 3 with 929 views | grow_our_own |
| MATCH OFF on 12:04 - Feb 3 by Guthrum |
Problem with that is it's a very big area to cover and you'd need some way of giving it a slope to run off (otherwise it would require pumping). Then you have to find somewhere for a very large volume of water to go.
Overnight it seems to have been raining 2-4mm per hour in Portsmouth (from looking at weather charts, which isn't massively heavy). For a fairly average football pitch, that's something like 12 to 24 cubic metres (3,000 to 6,000 gallons) of water every hour. Not only do you have to get that down pipes, but find somewhere to dump it outside the ground (without flooding anyone else). A much larger cloudburst would multiply the issue significantly. |
"you'd need some way of giving it a slope to run off " - isn't there always a slight run-off, no matter how flat the pitch looks to the naked eye? Aren't most pitches slightly convex? Even if some water pools in the middle, won't most of it be pushed off when the rain-cover is rolled off?
"find somewhere for a very large volume of water to go" - How hard is it to dig a permeable trench around the pitch to let the rain-covers drain? Cost probably in the magnitude of a couple of weeks of any Portsmouth player's wages. [Post edited 3 Feb 12:34]
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| MATCH OFF on 12:21 - Feb 3 with 923 views | algy |
| MATCH OFF on 12:16 - Feb 3 by bsw72 |
That's not entitlement - this is a professional multi-billion pound sport played through the winter months - rainfall and sub zero weather is the norm.
I would expect clubs in the top 2 professional English tiers to have the playing facilities to cope with some adverse weather. To not be able to cope with rainfall from what is NOT considered a winter storm is very very poor.
If clubs are unable to regularly fulfil fixtures, then they should be held accountable. |
You don't need a *storm" to get heavy rainfall with a yellow Met Office warning. Storms are more about winds | |
| Never forget that in April 2021, for ITFC, the Game Changed. |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:31 - Feb 3 with 848 views | bsw72 |
| MATCH OFF on 12:21 - Feb 3 by algy |
You don't need a *storm" to get heavy rainfall with a yellow Met Office warning. Storms are more about winds |
I stand by my view that a top 2 tier football club should have good enough drainage and pitch facilities to cope with heavy rain. | | | |
| MATCH OFF on 12:34 - Feb 3 with 831 views | bsw72 |
| MATCH OFF on 12:08 - Feb 3 by Samuelowen88 |
Climate change conspiracists? Oh jeez |
It kind of tells you all you need to know . . . | | | |
| MATCH OFF on 12:36 - Feb 3 with 812 views | Herbivore |
| MATCH OFF on 11:28 - Feb 3 by SomethingBlue |
Twice in a month, in the Championship and in 2026, really is not acceptable by any standard. |
Haven't had a game called off at Fratton Park in over a decade before this. I wonder what it is about Pompey's injury crisis that's led to them being unable to get either of these fixtures on? |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:40 - Feb 3 with 779 views | Chris_ITFC |
| MATCH OFF on 12:36 - Feb 3 by Herbivore |
Haven't had a game called off at Fratton Park in over a decade before this. I wonder what it is about Pompey's injury crisis that's led to them being unable to get either of these fixtures on? |
And plenty of seasons in the Prem. This isn’t a Wrexham or Oxford that are out of their depth (excuse the pun) financially at this level. |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:43 - Feb 3 with 751 views | Guthrum |
| MATCH OFF on 12:20 - Feb 3 by grow_our_own |
"you'd need some way of giving it a slope to run off " - isn't there always a slight run-off, no matter how flat the pitch looks to the naked eye? Aren't most pitches slightly convex? Even if some water pools in the middle, won't most of it be pushed off when the rain-cover is rolled off?
"find somewhere for a very large volume of water to go" - How hard is it to dig a permeable trench around the pitch to let the rain-covers drain? Cost probably in the magnitude of a couple of weeks of any Portsmouth player's wages. [Post edited 3 Feb 12:34]
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Soak-aways only function if the ground is not already waterlogged. Some places use holding tanks, but once they are full (as was the situation at Blackburn), than the water has to be sent somewhere else.
Not sure there would be enough slope on the pitch to make the water run off (even assuming the sheets are perfectly flat). Rolling up wet sheets would be a recipe for mould. Still doesn't solve the issue of where the water goes once swept off the sheets.
The real answer is advanced under-pitch drainage. Which, if well designed, can disperse a lot of water very quickly. As you say, not overwhelmingly expensive in the context of Champ/Prem football budgets (Town spent about £3m, including an improved pitch). But major disruption, requiring the whole thing to be dug up and re-laid. Can only be done very early in the summer. | |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:46 - Feb 3 with 733 views | positivity |
| MATCH OFF on 12:05 - Feb 3 by algy |
As the climate change conspiracists would have it, there's no longer "freak weather" just the new normal. |
who are the climate change conspiracists? is it a vast number of highly trained scientists working from massive datasets and using actual facts or is it the fossil fuel industry/donald trump/david icke?
hmm, tough one! | |
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| MATCH OFF on 12:53 - Feb 3 with 686 views | Waig |
| MATCH OFF on 12:46 - Feb 3 by positivity |
who are the climate change conspiracists? is it a vast number of highly trained scientists working from massive datasets and using actual facts or is it the fossil fuel industry/donald trump/david icke?
hmm, tough one! |
And all of those scientists will say anything if the money they are receiving for said research is good enough | | | |
| MATCH OFF on 13:24 - Feb 3 with 570 views | positivity |
| MATCH OFF on 12:53 - Feb 3 by Waig |
And all of those scientists will say anything if the money they are receiving for said research is good enough |
will they indeed? every single one of them? and who is telling them what to say, the lizard people?
next you'll be telling me the reason the game is postponed is that the earth is flat! | |
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| MATCH OFF on 13:33 - Feb 3 with 541 views | Zx1988 |
| MATCH OFF on 11:53 - Feb 3 by Cheltenham_Blue |
Being fair, it could be argued that Cricket pitches receive significantly less rainfall between April and August than football pitches receive between November and March. |
That's a fair point.
Do the differences in the two sports balance out, though?
Cricket needs a far drier pitch/outfield, and cricketers' spikes are a lot more lightweight.
Footballers have (or at least they should have) decent soft ground studs and, as long as the ball can bounce/roll freely, that should be all that matters.
I don't know if those differences balance out. Just a thought really. | |
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| MATCH OFF on 13:41 - Feb 3 with 501 views | Pinewoodblue |
A quick search using Google reveals that 5.8mm of rain has fallen in Portsmouth in the last 24 hours.
For those of us who don’t do metric that is less than a quarter of an inch. Light rain then drizzle forecast between now and scheduled kick off time.
Time the football league penalised clubs for avoidable postponements. |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 13:52 - Feb 3 with 458 views | jas0999 |
They should be forced to play the game at PR or forfeit the game.
As a minimum, they should be fines and forced to pay all abortive associated travel costs. | | | |
| MATCH OFF on 13:53 - Feb 3 with 449 views | BlueBoots |
| MATCH OFF on 11:59 - Feb 3 by jonny1964 |
yeah but we can get Nunez and Jadon back for the next one |
And Pompey can probably get Colby Bishop and a few others back too; plus they signed 3 players yesterday who wouldn't have been eligible to play tonight, so wonder whether anything will be made of that...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fo |  |
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| MATCH OFF on 13:59 - Feb 3 with 433 views | HighgateBlue |
Annoying.
Silver lining - longer to integrate Mehmeti, longer to get Neil match fit, and longer to get our injury list cut down.
That's all I've got. |  | | |
| MATCH OFF on 14:04 - Feb 3 with 419 views | blueislander |
| MATCH OFF on 13:59 - Feb 3 by HighgateBlue |
Annoying.
Silver lining - longer to integrate Mehmeti, longer to get Neil match fit, and longer to get our injury list cut down.
That's all I've got. |
It is stated that it was a joint decision made by the clubs, so it can be assumed that representatives of Town were satisfied that the game had to be called off. | | | |
| MATCH OFF on 14:09 - Feb 3 with 378 views | Metal_Hacker |
| MATCH OFF on 11:50 - Feb 3 by SitfcB |
Speak for yourself!  |
I know sorry mate , wasn't meant to sound so flippant
From a playing / squad perspective I'm alright with it
It was moments after posting that when I remembered you telling me on Saturday about having the day off etc (going to the dentist) , I suddenly remembered about other consequences
Yeah it stinks a bit hey .......... hopefully it evens itself out somehow for those losing time at work , travel and hotel costs etc |  |
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