Published: Thursday, 15th January, 2009 7:05am

Another off day

by Forfar So Good

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Another winter week, another Saturday call off, another day spent training on a weekend instead of playing games.

Most relieved man at the club was our coach, John Ritchie, who was scheduled to go up to watch Scottish Cup opponents Forres Mechanics take on Buckie Thistle. Rarely have straws come any shorter.

I think he is still doing cartwheels after the call came to say that match had been called off.

It is getting to the point where it is hard for us to remember when we last played a competitive match but there is nothing that can be done when such a cold snap occurs.

The Forfar groundsman Martin Gray does a great job and always has the pitch in top condition but it has been impossible for him to make any impact on the state of the pitch lately.

The Tuesday before New Year saw Forfar arrange a friendly with Alloa and the only reason that went ahead on what felt like the coldest night of the year was because of their synthetic surface.

This is not a call for all clubs to have such a surface. A league full of plastic pitches just does not bear thinking about.

If they have played football on grass for more than a hundred years surely we can still get on with it and make do with all the present technology that is available to us.

The calling off of games, although never desirable, just adds to the unpredictability that football has to offer and helps make it unique.

Although it can be frustrating having no games at this time of year the bright side is that there should be loads of midweek games come the end of the year which are always a welcome distraction from training.

It can be a hassle arranging time off from work but there is nothing better than playing games and if you get on a good run at these times then before you know it you are flying up the league.