Published: Thursday, 26th November, 2009 8:05am

Match should have been called off on the Friday - Macca

by Graham Gibson

PARS gaffer Jim McIntyre reckons the Queen of the South game should have been called off on the Friday night to prevent needless travel and expense for the club and its supporters.

Macca had already completed his team talk in the Palmerston Park dressing room when he and his players were informed that the referee had decided to postpone the match.

However, the Dunfermline manager believes both Queens and the officials should have taken into account the advance weather warnings after a Saturday morning deluge left the pitch unplayable.

McIntyre said, "The game should have been called off the night before, everybody knew what the forecast was to be and with the heavy rain they'd had earlier in the week it wasn't going to take too long.

"The rain was on from 11am, as was forecast, so they should be calling the game off the night before.

"I feel for the fans, it is an expensive business to follow your team and to call it off that late then the money has already been spent.

McIntyre added, "When you're down there you want the game played, but it was the correct decision as the pitch would not have been playable."

The game has been rearranged for this Tuesday and with his team bang in form the boss was keen to get the match on as quickly as possible.

"I'd asked for this Tuesday (24th November) but Queens weren't wanting that and have asked for next Tuesday so that's fine. T

"They have an important Scottish Cup tie on Saturday so we will get ourselves along and have a look at them.

"We have already tried to arrange a friendly but it's not happening at the moment as with the weather nobody has got any pitches."

Pars midfielder Steven Bell also had no complaints with the decision and believes the weather conditions would have affected the quality of the match.

"We were just about to get stripped and the rain just kept coming down so I think it was the best decision.

"Another hour of rain then the pitch would have been covered, and it would have cut up really bad, so it would not have been a great game to watch," he said.

"I felt sorry for the fans who made the journey.

"I spoke to a couple of them just as we were getting back on the bus and I asked them how they got down and they were actually from Dumfries, so that was lucky.

"For the rest it must have been very disappointing and a big waste of money going down there but hopefully they will go back down and support us again."

Bell admits the next game simply cannot come quickly enough for a team that are looking to extend their unbeaten run to eight games and close the gap on leaders Queens and Dundee.

"It's good to have the game so soon, you don't want to be waiting two weeks for another game, and we want to keep our good run going," he explained.

"I feel good at the minute now that I'm getting a run of games and am injury free.

"I got injured at the start of pre-season, got back fit, then played the first four games of the season before breaking down against Dundee, which was disappointing, but it's great to be involved in our unbeaten run at the moment.

"Confidence is sky high but we've got to keep it going.

"This league is hard enough, another couple of defeats can put you right back down, so we need to keep going as we should be challenging for promotion at the top of the table."

Return to: Homepage | Sport Index | This article