York City Groundsman Wayne Simpson puts the covers back on a frozen Bootham Cresent pitch helped by kit man Rob Batty............Nigel Holland.

York air their say on the reasons for the late postponement

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

York City have defended their decision following the late postponement of their FA Trophy clash with Ebbsfleet United at Bootham Crescent on Saturday.

With all seven of the FA Trophy ties called off by mid-morning, York underwent a second pitch inspection at 12.30pm before the game was called off, with many Fleet fans, and myself, en route to the match.

The Bootham Crescent pitch had already had one inspection on the Friday night, carried out by a local referee, before a second on Saturday morning at 10am.

“We cannot make the call to postpone the game ourselves, it has to be the decision of the match official,” said Chris Tock, Operations and Safety Manager at York City.

“A local official had come over on Friday night and realistically thought the game could still be played.

“The match official carried out the first inspection on Saturday morning and with the sun bearing down on the pitch, thought the pitch could thaw in time.

“It was hard, but was beginning to soften in places, which gave the referee confidence that the ground could improve enough to make the game playable.

“But around 40 minutes after the initial pitch inspection the sun had become slightly hazed, and though there had been an improvement, it wasn’t enough to deem it playable.”

After the initial inspection at 10am, there was no announcement on the club website until 10.45am, by which time most Ebbsfleet fans had set off on their journey.

“As a club we tried to keep people fully aware of what was going on,” added Tock.

“The initial pitch inspection on Saturday morning took 30-35 minutes and discussed every area of the pitch in depth before making the decision.

“The Ebbsfleet team had already travelled up on the Friday, and we gave the game every opportunity possible to be played, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”

On the whole debacle Ebbsfleet boss Liam Daish said: “We were up there on the Friday night and conditions weren’t great then, and nothing changed from Friday to the Saturday.

“The whole thing disappointed me, but now we just have to get on with what has been decided and go again in the re-arranged fixture.”

The Minstermen had planned to play the tie on Tuesday night at Bootham Crescent, but after a pitch inspection on Monday afternoon, the tie was postponed once again, and will now be played next Tuesday, with a 7.45pm kick-off.

“It would have been tough going for the players to take another day’s holiday from work so soon after having to take the Friday off and it was probably best it was called off on Monday,” added the Fleet boss.

Whoever is victorious will then make the trip to Grimsby Town in the last eight after they defeated Bath City 2-1 on Tuesday night, a draw which disappointed boss Daish.

“Again it is not ideal playing away from home,” he said.

“Ideally it would have been at home but it’ll be a tough game.

“The most important thing first is to worry about getting through to that stage, before we turn our minds elsewhere,” he added.