Witton Albion vs Boston United (FAT3Q).

Witton welcome Boston United back to The NetDec Stadium on Tuesday night, as the two clubs attempt to complete their Buildbase FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round tie at the second time of asking. Vanarama National League Chester FC await the winners in the First Round. Kick off at The NetDec Stadium is 7.45pm. Should the game be drawn, the replay will take place at Boston United 's Jakemans Stadium on Tuesday, 6th December again with a 7.45pm kick off.

WITTON ALBION FC,
THE NETDEC STADIUM,
CHAPEL STREET,
WINCHAM,
NORTHWICH,
CW9 6DA.

Parking: The Car Park is past the Social Club on the right.

Admission Prices: Adults £9, Concessions £6, Students & Under 15’s £4. Please note: The “Kids Go Free” Season Tickets are NOT valid for Cup matches.

Matchday Programme: £1. Smaller than normal issue due to time available.

The Social Club will be open from 6pm.

Social Club Access: Before the game, the Social Club is accessible by way of the main entrance ONLY. From half time onwards the Social Club is accessible from inside the stadium via a passageway within the main stand. Alcohol is permitted inside the stadium but MUST be in a plastic beaker.

Refreshments: At the time of posting, there is no information available regarding availability of food inside the stadium. The club have put out an appeal for volunteers to run the tea bar but it isn’t possible to confirm anything further at this stage.

Please note: As the Social Club is now a full-time food preparation area, dogs are not permitted inside the building - with the exception of assistance dogs (hearing & visually impaired).

Boston United have parted company with manager Dennis Greene today.

BEHIND THE CHAIR

Good evening everybody and welcome back to the NetDec stadium for a second go at completing our Buildbase FA Trophy 1st round tie against Boston United.

Let me start by clarifying the circumstances surrounding Saturday’s abandonment. The fog that affected much of North Cheshire came down on Saturday morning and the match referee was made of this quickly by our secretary Jeff Metcalfe. The rules around fog state that if the referee can see both goals and linesmen (sorry, assistants) from the halfway line, the game can go ahead. With both teams on-site and ready to play, the referee decided the game could start. Both teams happily agreed with this decision, which in my view was entirely the right one. However the two clubs also agreed a contingency plan in the event of an abandonment. David Newton, Boston’s chairman, and I agreed that in the event of the match being abandoned in the first half a full refund would be offered, but that any abandonment at half time or thereafter would not entitle anyone to a refund. This is in line with FA rules and those in both the NPL and National Leagues.

At half time the referee called representatives from both teams into his room and explained that, in his view, the conditions were deteriorating. Under floodlights, with darkness falling, the referee decided that the game could not continue. This was his decision and his alone. Neither club had any say or influence, so there was nothing that could be done other than to make the relevant announcement as quickly as possible. Had the game been abandoned with, say, 20 minutes to go, the decision would have been even more painful for whichever side led. It is a myth that there is any rule allowing results to stand if a match is abandoned beyond a particular minute. Such an event would be referred to the FA to rule on.

The rules around match proceeds for the FA Trophy are quite clear. They are jointly shared by both clubs after VAT, the visiting team’s travel, match officials’ and other allowable expenses are deducted. There are also rules around minimum admission prices for FA Trophy games. This means that we are now permitted to offer complimentary admission to this evening’s game and that, even if we applied the minimum £5 charge for admission, after paying all the match expenses the two clubs would be sharing a loss. Given that midweek attendances are invariably lower than Saturday ones, our costs would have stayed the same but income would have fallen dramatically, which makes no business sense.

In summary, the game went ahead because the only man with the power to decide otherwise elected to start. The game was abandoned for the same reason. We did not refund admission charges because the two clubs had agreed beforehand not to do so, because neither club can afford to make a loss. Admittedly Witton Albion has benefitted from bar and tea hut takings, but the margins are not massive.

I am sorry if this offends anyone from Witton or Boston, which is not my intention. No-one likes having a wasted journey. However nobody has been conned, ripped off or worse. We go again tonight and, whatever the result, would do the same again should the same circumstances occur.

Enjoy the game.

Mark.

I love the fact that the Chairman is prepared to openly discuss the reasons and applaud him for that!

I have to question some of the content though, lets look at the financials of the TWO games and the TWO lots of gate receipts as a whole, On Saturday there were 400+ paying at an average of lets say £6 plus VAT that’s £2400 - out of which the Boston Expenses and the other expenses would easily have been met - thereby generating a decent profit.
Even if tonight’s attendance at a fiver each, generates a thousand pound(unbudgeted) that’s more than enough to cover said expenses.

Surely the moral thing would be to at least offer some sort of discount - to expect non-league fans to pay £18 for one FA Trophy Tie is wrong (in my eyes) even more so if you’ve had to travel for 6 hours (twice!)

The whys and wherefores of the game being played are for personal opinion and conjecture, suffice to say that everyone to a man/woman who I spoke to/listened to as we entered the ground, said there’s no way this will last 90 minutes. Nightfall was forecast that day and the history and geography of the ground suggested that the fog would be an omnipresent.

I stand by my earlier post, the referee set the rules at the start and the same rules should have been applied at half time/until such time as it was deemed to have changed from the original criteria.

Sorry for expressing an opinion on the forum and I will begrudgingly pay whatever is deemed to be appropriate this evening!

MORE IMPORTANTLY - COME ON THE ALBS Tonight!

Well done Mark, although I’ve only read one numpty from Boston whinging about events on Saturday (you’d have thought they would have been delighted to get another chance!) - it all makes complete sense.

Not sure if they’ve appointed a new manager/caretaker for the match but let’s be prepared for a different performance from them!

UTA!

Apparently the assistant is taking charge for tonight’s game.

The pitch has passed an early inspection for tonight.

UPDATE:

The Tea Bar inside the stadium will NOT be open tonight but food will be available from the kitchen inside the Social Club.

No argument with any of the above.
WHS.

Good luck to the lads tonight, lets all get down and get behind em! Going to be a real toughie but one thing is for sure if we don’t get through it wont be through lack of effort and determination from this team. I’m sure they will do us proud as always. UTA

Well said Andy Chad

As a gesture of goodwill a couple of quid knocked off admission prices for tonight would have been nice

i cant believe it’s still on,not been much above freezing all day.

Ref will call it off at half time again!! (Only joking before someone at Boston gets the hump!) Is it definitely on?

WHS.

MATCH POSTPONED - Due to a Frozen Pitch.

Are you kidding? I have stayed up to watch the goals coming in on Twitter - we are four hours ahead here and it’s way past my bed time. I can only imagine how the hardy souls who bothered to make the trip from Boston feel…

[quote=“WHEELS” post=67626]MATCH POSTPONED - Due to a Frozen Pitch.[/quote] QUELLE SURPRISE !bangwall

Just been on the pitch and it was playable, both managers wanted to play but the Ref did not apparently ! he did not want to start and have to abandon it later, well thats just what He should have because it might not get any worse its only 0 to -1 C and not going to go into a deep frost in 2 hours, where the hell do these refs come from. ???

Sounds like OXO on the Boston Forum is getting his knickers in a twist about the match being postponed… - “Quite a comprehensive statement and all because I raised the matter of last weeks abandonment when I said that I thought we the supporters had been ripped off in many ways.And now Match postponed at around 7pm when the team and fans had arrived It appears locals were predicting this much earlier in the day. There was to be no catering in the ground for fans, What a surprise nothing wasted there then. Well Chairman Mark lets have another explanation of why the fans were allowed to travel 150 miles when it appears Witton folk predicted it would be off and congratulations on saving money.”

With regard to the catering inside the ground - our T-Hut staff were unavailable tonight and that was known for a few days. Arrangements were made for food to be available inside the club as per normal when this happens…

The pitch - was perfectly playable this afternoon at the time that Boston were setting off so there were no reasons to call off the game at that time. It was only when the ref arrived this evening were any concerns raised - and just like Saturday, he took the decision.

It was a very frustrating decision, baring in mind some of us worked nearly all day to get this game on. The management teams of both sides just had to accept the decision although I am certain that they would rather have started the game. If any of the Boston fans think there has been anything dodgy happening they should have a chat with their management team on Saturday. See you next week !!

I made the trip from Rudheath!!!

Tonight’s postponed game has now been re scheduled for:

TUESDAY, 6TH DECEMBER - Kick off 7.45pm