Crusaders left frustrated with match postponement

Hungerford's clash with St Albans was postponed shortly before kick-off

HUNGERFORD Town joint manager Ian Herring was left frustrated by the referee’s decision to postpone their National League South match with St Albans last weekend.

Alex Blake and his officials checked the pitch at 2pm before waiting until 10 minutes before kick-off to decide that the game could not take place.

During this period, both sets of players had undergone their pre-match warm-ups and both sets of supporters were already in the ground.

Herring and fellow joint manager Jon Boardman were going through their final pre-match thoughts when the referee made his decision.

Herring, who was due to start the game at Bulpit Lane said: “It was very frustrating for everyone concerned.

“Not only for us, but for St Albans too as their staff, players and supporters had wasted a lot of time and energy travelling down.”

Herring admitted that the financial costs has affected both sides because the game was unable to take place over the weekend.

He added: “It was frustrating, because it was more playable then two weeks ago [against Bognor Regis Town] and we played that. The referee should have made the decision sooner.”

Despite the weekend off, Herring explained that his side had trained over the weekend and will fit another session in before Saturday.

He said: “We did a bit of training on the pitch on Saturday and we’ll have a longer session too, but we’ll prepare as usual for Havant at the weekend. They’ve had a lot of games called off at their pitch so hopefully the game gets the go ahead.”

When Havant & Waterloovile and the Crusaders met back in October, Jason Prior scored the games only goal as Havant won 1-0 at Bulpit Lane.

On a more positive note, the joint manager feels having the extra week off may give him a full strength squad to choose from ahead of the game.

“It gives the injured players a week longer to recover”, he said. “Matty Williams was feeling his calf at the weekend so it’s given him a bit more recovery time.

“Hopefully we’ll have a near enough full squad for the game.”

The Crusaders are currently five points from the National League South relegation zone, but do have a game in hand on Poole Town who are in 20th position and several teams surrounding them.

After the weekend fixture against Havant & Waterloovile, Hungerford’s next fixture will be a trip to Hampton & Richmond Borough on February 27.

The re-arranged game against St Albans has yet to be decided and at the moment, Hungerford don’t play a fixture at Bulpit Lane until March 10, when they face Chelmsford City.

The club still have 13 league games remaining including fixtures against Whitehawk, East Thurrock United, Poole Town and Concord Rangers who are all sitting close to them in the league.