Pompey fans on social media have reacted to the news that today’s game at Blackburn Rovers has been canceled.
And, unsurprisingly, there are a lot of disgruntled Blues fans, many of whom were on their way to Ewood Park or had already there.
Following an 11 a.m. pitch assessment, referee Farai Hallam decided to cancel the Championship encounter.
That was necessary given the rain and snowfall that fell in Lancashire earlier this week as Storm Bert moved across the UK. However, with the Met Office warning of potentially hazardous weather well in advance of today, many Blues fans believe a decision could have been made before the Fratton faithful left in the early hours of the morning.
Here are some of the opinions expressed on X, formerly Twitter, as about 2,000 Pompey fans return home sooner than anticipated.
@IanDarke: No surprise. This storm has been expected for several days. An earlier decision would have saved many fans from having to travel considerable distances for nothing. PR is lacking.
@pfch92: A disgrace for travelling fans. Why not do this around 8 or 9 a.m.? Wasn’t going to change in that short period of time.
@L3WIS______: Championship teams can’t maintain pitches in the present era??? Genuinely deduct Blackburn points.
@scottpompey: Most fans are already there, so call it earlier.
@med584: @Rovers, no covers? The weather prediction predicted heavy rain; no backup plans? Up early, and barely 30 minutes away.
@PompeyChimes90: This is an absolute joke. The championship game was called off, which was hilarious.
@DeanoJPFC16: It is simply horrible how genuine football fans are treated these days. The forecast has been in place all week, and they knew there would be around 2000 fans travelling. Either put covers on it or call it off last night, can’t not do either of those things and then call off when all on the way and most there.
@christ_the2nd: If a Championship club cannot schedule a game, they should be penalized. How could you have seen the forecast without thinking, “Maybe we should cover the pitch”?
@Zapbw91: You’d think having a pitch that can withstand rain in the northwest would be a given for second-tier football these days.
@Liam1993c: That was awful of @Rovers and the officials; a pitch inspection should have been done much earlier. If they had known how much rain was anticipated, they could have done it yesterday evening or first thing this morning instead of waiting until 11 a.m., which is ridiculous given the distance.
@ShaunCHill: How can this game be called off while Preston and Bolton are playing just minutes later?
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