09 February 2021

Unfortunate to postpone after 650-mile round trip to Barrow – Exeter boss Taylor

09 February 2021

Exeter boss Matt Taylor refused to apportion any blame after Tuesday night’s League Two clash at Barrow was postponed less than an hour before the scheduled 6.30pm kick-off.

Despite the Holker Street pitch surviving two earlier inspections – and the original 7pm kick-off time being brought forward half an hour – referee Ross Joyce postponed the game at 5.30pm, therefore rendering the Exeter party’s 650-mile round trip wasted.

Too many parts of Barrow’s pitch were frozen and temperatures were set to plummet in Cumbria.

“It’s just unfortunate on both teams’ part,” said Taylor. “There’s certain things you can control, but the weather isn’t one of them.

“Certain areas of the pitch have firmed up in the run-up to kick-off and that means it’s not playable.

“It’s a huge wasted journey on our part. We’ve been going all day – but it’s not the fault of Barrow or their staff.

“They’ve had the heaters on, the covers on, they’ve done everything they can to get this game on.

“They were as desperate as us to play the game.

“There’s no complaints whatsoever from us – it is what it is.

“Hopefully when we come back in April we’ll still be in a good enough position to make that game meaningful.”

Taylor’s opposite number Michael Jolley pretty much agreed, though he was clearly frustrated at seeing a second game in a matter of weeks postponed at very short notice.

The Holker Street clash against Grimsby a fortnight ago suffered a similar fate.

Jolley said: “It’s really frustrating. It’s the second time this has happened now, when we’ve got so close to kick-off, sadly.

“We’re all frustrated. Everyone wanted to play the game of course.

“We need to get some rhythm and some momentum into our season.

“When games keep getting cancelled it makes things tough but we’ve no complaints tonight.

“Credit to all the ground staff here. They’d worked so hard over the past 48 hours to get this game on.

“Ultimately, though, the temperature has conspired against us and the referee has deemed that the pitch was unfit to play on.

“Honestly, I think the referee has made the right decision.

“Both myself and (Exeter boss) Matt (Taylor) wanted to play the game but the referee felt certain areas of the surface were unsafe.

“It was tough to argue with him . It was very, very hard, almost like concrete in places.

“With the temperatures dropping, it was only going to go one way.”

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