FIXTURE NEWS: New Date for Diamonds

The Northern Premier League have confirmed that the postponed match at AFC Rushden & Diamonds will now take place on Tuesday the 4th of March 2024 (19:45 KO).

The fixture was originally scheduled for the 25th of January (3pm KO), and had looked go to go ahead on Friday afternoon, with no concerns about the pitch. However, after rainfall overnight a pitch inspection was arranged for 10:30am. The Referee finally arrived at 10:45, after players had already left for the ground, and Quorn received word that the game was on after 11am.

Immediately upon arrival it was clear that the pitch was in no state for football. Players were struggling to walk on it and you could hear squelching with every tentative footstep. The match Referee arrived shortly afterwards and walked across the pitch. It was clear, that in football boots, the footing was substantially better, but, despite requests from Quorn’s Coaching Staff and players that the game go ahead, the Referee was unmoved and called the game off on health and safety grounds.

A number of questions need to be asked, firstly, who was the Referee that declared the pitch playable, and how on earth did he reach that conclusion? Secondly, if health and safety is such a concern, why is it not considered that asking around 60 or more people to take a three hour round trip on a Tuesday evening considered a risk? There are numerous accidents daily on the M1 and A14, I imagine those numbers rise in the dark and during rush hour when most of those people will be having to set off.

Maybe this wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but this is the second year in a row that Quorn have travelled to Rushden, and had the match called off whilst in the ground with fans already arriving from North Leicestershire. It’s simply not good enough.