Due to the amount of water on the pitch with no improvement forecast in the weather I would suggest that the EFL should be contacting Mr Toner and his officials team to establish what meaningful checks were made on the condition of the pitch prior to kick off . Once the game has kicked off it becomes a lot more difficult to abandon a match even though I would suggest that on safety grounds their was a heightened risk of injuries . The match was played in absolutely farcical conditions and we were well beaten by a team that adapted to the conditions a lot lot better than we did and were deserved winners . All I would ask is for the EFL to view the video and explain why the game got the go ahead from the officials , I would suggest this is yet another terrible decision by another inept referee that unfortunately we are having to endure in EFL1.
Nick Barnes just said on total sport that the ref did no checks at all at half time either. If the ref told Johnson that the ball was running properly on the pitch then it's, quite frankly, ****ing ludicrous and he is a danger to the players. We were well beaten on the day, and that's fair enough but the ****e refs at this level are an absolute joke
Conditions suited Portsmouth not football will be interesting to see how the return fixture goes, lets hope its a football match and we murder the b******s.
That game should not even have started the refs are crap at this level, lets put this to the refs association, i was landscape gardener and know what i am talking about, refs know frig all apparently, did they fork the pitch ? what drainage did they have that was a skating rink not a football pitch. ? Aldershots game copped it at half time, this ref did not give a toss about any safety of the players will anything more be said about this. That liverpool game would have not started if they had had them conditions i know. Had we been 3-0 now no doubt that game would have been abandoned though, so no more games in this country can be abandoned after that or that game result should be wiped. We are getting done by refs again the season they don't see O Nein getting punched in the face at the Wycombe game etc either.
That was the problem we thought we could play our normal game in abnormal conditions playing football was never going to work and the coaching staff should have got that message across to the players a whole lot earlier than they did, a convenient injury break would have done the job perhaps.
Don’t care what the score was/is, that is not a proper game and the ref should be struck off for not even considering player safety and farcical conditions, imo. Absolute joke that like regardless of which teams were playing.
It's embarrassing for him. We will move on from the result, but that needs reporting to his gaffers that he didn't even carry out any sort of safety tests by rolling/bouncing the ball etc. Joke. But, sadly it's par for the course at this level.
i said at the time and stick by it, the safety of the players should be paramount, that game should have been stopped and i don't care if the result stood...it was always one uncontrollable slide tackle away from a couple of players sustaining a serious injury, even the linesman got lucky when their played slid at him. i presumed the ref might have given the go-ahead due to the travel our fans had made (never stopped them calling a game off before mind) but it is starting to look more as if he did not even make a decision which is a joke, more so as some tackles and heading of the ball are being looked at to be phased out.
The club should be making representations to the EFL and the referee association and asking the relevant questions of why the game was allowed to start and secondly why it was allowed to continue , the result is immaterial but the officials I believe have to be accountable for their total lack of judgement. On principal the club have an obligation to the fans who travelled hundreds of miles to witness a farcical game of football ? This apart Mr Toner has to be accountable for the decisions he made on the day to allow the match to take place , their is ample proof on video to make their judgement .Their observations should be made public as their is no excuse for what transpired.
Danger to players a very serious point . But on the lighter side it does bring to mind the ref on a foggy night , who checked wether he could see each goal from the half way line. What’s that white thing in the sky ? he was asked. That’s the moon he replied. Well just how f^cking far do you need to see ? asked Bill Shankley
