Altrincham (2) 4 Dorking W (0) 1 (J Taylor)

2,291 (41 hardy souls from Dorking)

I can only see a defeat on Tuesday,  

3-0 Altrincham 

Let me be positive- a 2-0 defeat only. 
I just hope Marc goes for the win - might as well give it a go as 3 points would be amazing 

@baggy Good call. Bit of a free hit perhaps. Go all out and see where we end up?

Very frustrating - been in Altrincham since 3pm and it hasn't rained one drop 🤷‍♂️

Their pitch must be spectacularly bad for it to not have drained from earlier...

Our carload got to 20 mins drive away from the ground when it was called off. Total waste of time and petrol

Alty have form for their pitch having spectacularly bad drainage apparently!

Commiserations to all those who made the wasted journey. Really frustrating! 

Given the history of the pitch fans the forecast for heavy rain in the evening you would think they could have made a call before the teams and fans set out. Maybe the refs could be instructed to do this in future rather than leaving it so late? Not sure how much discretion they have on this. No doubt there is some League rule which takes no account of convenience of travelling clubs. 

But we didn’t lose at least! 

I think it depends on the referee, pitch conditions and forecast. The first inspection is often done by a local referee. Crawley recently had an evening game called off in Peterborough. The local referee and Peterborough said it was unplayable at 12.30, but EFL told him it was too early to call off, and check again at 2.30 . He then changed his mind and said OK, but when match referee turned up he called game off at 6.30 so wasted trip and cost for all away fans and players.

Then again the Wimbledon game was called off 22.5 hours before kick off and that is a local game. 

My brainwave, which I shared on twitter (X) last night was as follows:

As both games between Dorking and Alty are still to be played, could we not 'reverse' the fixtures?

Alty would then come to us on a Tuesday night in March (the earliest date that both clubs have free is Tues 5th March)

That would save our part-time players taking a weekday off work to travel north, and Alty would have the greater assurance the game would be played, being on our 3G all weather pitch.

The fixture on 6th April could then be Alty's to host - they get a Saturday home game (better attendance than a midweek), plus another home game for them in their crucial run-in to the play offs, and our players (and fans) get to travel north on a Saturday rather than another weekday off work.

I think it would be win-win.

I remember during the 'covid' season the league allowed us to reverse a fixture with Dulwich Hamley when Dulwich's floodlights were broken, because both teams were keen to get the fixture played!

@dorking-eagle Something so utterly sensible it surely won't happen...

@dorking-eagle Yeah I said this as well but just don't think it will happen. Would Marc want a smaller Tuesday night crowd in early March at Meadowbank rather than a more lucrative Saturday crowd in April?

What's annoying is that Altrincham clearly don't learn their lessons from these. The first date for this fixture back in October was called off for a waterlogged pitch and that decision was made the Friday morning (the day before the game). Why couldn't that have been done this time considering the forecast?

Altrincham offering free entry for Dorking fans when the game does go ahead (probably 5th March). Hopefully 5th time lucky!

According to the lengthy statement online, the pitch WAS playable when inspected at 11am

The Dorking team set off at 12noon

(we set off by car at 1pm)

The match referee only inspected it at 5pm (presumably the time he got there)

In a perfect world the on/off inspection should have been at 2pm - a time which all Dorking fans (from Dorking) would have had to have left by

Could you imagine the uproar if it was 700 Southend fans making a lengthy journey from the South for example?

Hey ho, is what it is. Hopefully our squad will be in stronger shape by next time