Saturday 18th December 2010
Plan A - Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa OFF
Plan B - Bristol Rovers v Colchester United OFF
Plan C- Northampton Town v Morecambe OFF
Plan D - AFC Telford United v Eastwood Town OFF
Today was a rare day when heavy snow and health and safety resulted in Plan A, Plan B, Place C and even Plan D failing to produce a game to watch.
Snow fell in Stafford on Thursday, more snow fell yesterday and even more snow fell this morning. The same was true for the virtually the whole of England. So, yesterday, with chances of watching a non-league football in my usual haunts looking bleak, I came up with Plan A which was a trip to either Wigan Athletic, Cardiff City or Hull City, grounds I’d not previously visited. Cardiff’s home game was never really on the agenda (postponed yesterday afternoon anyway), nor was Hull (due to expensive and lengthy train trip) so after much pondering and checking weather forecasts I opted for Wigan v Aston Villa the DW Stadium.
The Wigan part of Plan A was put into action late last night when I booked a ticket online and worked out I needed to catch one of three mid-morning trains from Stafford to Manchester Picadilly to pick up a connection to Wigan Wallgate. Sorted!
But ‘sorted’ turned to ‘doubtful’ when I heard, at 8-15 am, of problems on both the M6 and M61 near Wigan due to snow, If these motorways had problem the surely the town of Wigan had problems too. Spot on, as a message appeared on Wigan Athletic’s website reported under the headline ‘GAME IN SEVERE DOUBT’ that ‘despite the best efforts of the club to keep today's game on by bringing in snow ploughs and gritters, today's game against Aston Villa is now in serious doubt after 10 inches of overnight snowfall’.
So expecting an inevitable postponement, my attention turned to Plan B and a trip to Bristol Rovers. It was possible to catch a train from Stafford around 11 am to Bristol Parkway and a walk to the Memorial Stadium in plenty of time before kick-off. Rovers’ website seemed confident about the pitch but, around 9-40 am, came the announcement that the game was off. The message read: ‘Today's match against Colchester has been postponed. Referee Michael Naylor visited the Memorial Stadium this morning and had no hesitation in calling the game off. Although the pitch was perfectly playable, the car park and surrounding areas were deemed too dangerous for spectators.’
Time to hatch Plan C: a trip, again by train, to Northampton and the League Two game against Morecambe. I’d seen to Sxifields 15 years ago though that didn’t matter as I went at night and didn’t take any photos. No pitch inspection was planned. While I was checking train times and printing a map showing the route from Northampton station to the ground, Sky Sports News announced, what I was expecting, that Wigan v Villa was off. Wigan’s website confirmed the bad news: ‘Today's Barclays Premier League game … has been called off after freak weather conditions in the town overnight … the ten inches of snow that fell overnight, and is still falling at the time of going to press, has made the surrounding area extremely hazardous for supporters travelling to the game’.
But, while I was getting ready to head for Stafford Station, Facebook friend Laurence gave the bad news at 10:37 am that Plan C had bit the dust: ‘Northampton Town OFF. Sorry’.
I’d spotted that AFCTelford’s home game with Eastwood Town in Blue Square Bet North wasn’t OFF, and indeed the Bucks’ website confirmed ‘GAME ON, GAME ON, GAME ON – VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED’. Great! Plan D will save the day. Even though it was snowing outside, we decided to head to Telford for a family shopping/football trip. But at 12:03 pm, shortly before we were due to set off, Ian Padley posted on Facebook: ‘Sorry. Its gone too (sic)’. What had gone? AFC Telford’s game due to ‘dangerous driving conditions’, etc.
So what was left was a rare football-free Saturday during the season. Hull City’s game with Bristol City was played but I must admit I’ve enjoyed today as something different – tidying the house, taking four charity bags to the British Heart Foundation shop and a revisit to Asda. And, I’ve still been able to blog around 650 words out of going nowhere!
