Referee Simon Hooper explains why he postponed Tuesday night’s game at Crawley.
Hooper from Wiltshire postponed North End’s League One tie in Sussex an hour before kick-off due to a waterlogged pitch.
Minutes after taking the decision to not play the game, Hooper told PNE.Com the reason behind his decision was the safety of the players.
“There was a pitch inspection at 9.30am this morning and rightly so. The pitch was fine then and playable and I have arrived here this evening and I would have kicked the game off now but with the forecast of the rain and the conditions as they are now with the ball not bouncing and heavy on the foot, my concern was as the game goes on the ball won’t roll and player safety is the most important thing.
“Everybody’s nightmare is to start the game and not finish it, the players are all professionals, they all train all week for a game of football and those conditions are farcical and it won’t help anyone and it puts the players in jeopardy.
“You don’t want to risk any players getting serious injuries and putting them out for the rest of the season. That is the most important thing and we have to tackle what is ahead of us now and make the correct decisions.
“It is my fifth year as a referee in the Football League so occasions like this have come up before and recently we have had many postponements due to the weather but it is part of the job.”