06Feb

Gills’ game succumbs to the weather

by Gary W

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The chance to put the two 4-3 defeats behind us with a win at home to Hereford must now wait for another week after falling to the weather as did many of the rest. Bouncing back is crucial for any chance to keep up with the pack and in order to do so, it must be achieved at another away game and against Burton who are level on points and harbour the very same desire themselves. There are few options when it comes to fitting the game in.

Over the next 35 days the Gills will participate in four midweek matches and all are at home.  Just two games after the Burton match the Gills will feature in a live Sky television game against Southend.  The week after, Rotherham make the trip down in a match re-arranged after both sides featured in the third round of the FA Cup.  A fortnight passes before Barnet visit for yet another midweek game in what would be the fourth non-Saturday encounter out of five between the sides in only the last two seasons.  Crawley completes the quartet two weeks later.  It may be quite a while before we witness Hereford United attempt to avenge the 6-1 defeat inflicted by the Gills at the start of the season!

It was hardly surprising that the game would not survive the weekend weather but it did surprise me at how soon it was postponed.  With the pitch covered all week, one would have felt that it might be sufficient enough as snow and plenty of it appeared to be the main forecast and I was led to believe that snow helps to insulate the pitch making it playable (with the aid of the covers of course)!  Whilst the pitch on Friday lunchtime would have been sufficiently frozen enough due to frost, I don’t think this would have been the primary reason for cancellation if snow was about. As someone who avidly follows the forecasts with imminent bad weather it was easy to notice how it altered throughout the day and this foresight as to what would happen and when was almost prophetic!

Maybe the covers would not stop a heavily frozen pitch from frost but would have if it snowed and maybe the decision was more to do with the fact that the away fans might get caught out travelling back otherwise it hard to see the justification in having them. If the game would not survive in any case then the expense was needless.  At the end of the day it was the right decision and the early warning saved hundreds of people a wasted journey and potentially worse!

Posted by Gillingham fan Gary Wade

Follow Gary on Twitter at @Gills_Stats