Source: Team_Talk
Bairns say sorry to Saints fans
SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster is set to launch an investigation into why the undersoil heating at the Falkirk Stadium failed and why the game was not called off after local referee Stephen Finnie staged an 11am inspection.[LNB]Match referee Stevie O'Reilly arrived after 1pm and after looking at the pitch ruled that four frozen strips of turf would prevent the match going ahead, although both teams then trained on the surface.[LNB]More than 1500 Saints fans were en route to the game when they heard the news and Craig said: "I know how desperately disappointed the St Johnstone fans are, as are ours.[LNB]"St Johnstone had identified this fixture as a real special occasion and so I apologise to all their fans.[LNB]"They will have had their whole day planned and they were travelling down through difficult conditions.[LNB]"I know they would have been wanting me to be doing everything that I could to get the game on rather than coming in and saying 'we won't bother'.[LNB]"My job was to come in here early in the morning and do as much as I could to get the game on and I did that.[LNB]"To be fair, the local referee was happy generally with the state of the pitch and he gave us a degree of comfort.[LNB]"If we thought it was going to be perfect we would have come in at our normal time and not seven o'clock in the morning.[LNB]"I couldn't have done any more and there was nothing more that Falkirk could do. So I hope the St Johnstone fans will give us that, that we actually worked hard. Having said that I do apologise most sincerely to them."[LNB]O'Reilly claimed he was simply not prepared to take a chance on the game going ahead.[LNB]"It would have been great to play the game because we have all travelled through some awkward conditions to get here," he said.[LNB]"The club had four hours to work on it from 11am to 3pm but unfortunately when we turned up at 10 past one it was clear from just walking on the pitch with our shoes that there were so many places that were bone-hard.[LNB]"Like we always say in these circumstances, our primary concern is the players taking part in the game.[LNB]"If a player had run from a soft surface to a hard surface, slipped and cracked his head I would be feeling terrible and so it's just not possible to put the game on, regardless of how much you want it to go on."[LNB]St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes insists the decision should have been made at 11am.[LNB]"I am a bit surprised the game was off," he said. "I've seen pitches in worse condition to be honest.[LNB]"There was a pitch inspection at 11am and we got a call at 11.15am saying it was fine, so that allayed any fears that we had.[LNB]"So we came here thinking the game was on.[LNB]"You see that Falkirk had been working on the pitch with the four heaters, maybe they thought it would have been OK by three o'clock.[LNB]"But we have supporters coming from a long way and 11 o'clock was a fair enough time to make a decision.[LNB]"It's not as if the temperatures dropped dramatically so it is really frustrating.[LNB]"We had the chance to go fifth in the league and that would have been really healthy for us.[LNB]"We are disappointed but you have to respect the referee's decision."[LNB]Falkirk boss Eddie May admits the decision to call the game off could have been made earlier.[LNB]He said: "If you have a pitch inspection at 11am then it is either on or off. It is very disappointing because a lot of people were travelling down.[LNB]"But the referee has a decision to make and he has made that on three or four areas of the pitch which were not up to the standard of SPL football.[LNB]"It has been an ongoing battle with the pitch for a few days now and there have been people working very hard but the referee couldn't take a chance.[LNB]"We have covers on top of the undersoil heating but I think it only works up to minus five and anything below that we can't do anything about.[LNB]"You have to respect the referee's decision."[LNB]The rearranged game is set to go ahead on Tuesday night.[LNB][LNB]
