The Master

Are you saying shite just for the sake of it now?

Well, quite. Are you saying the current issues are the same as the previous ones?

Are you saying we didn’t carry out any work pre-season?

And what “fix” do you propose we do mid-season?

The pitch was playable on Thursday.

When is “sooner”? Our pitch was deemed playable earlier in the week. You’d be setting a dangerous precedent moving a game on the basis of something that might happen.

It’s rained again since then. Heavily. The pitch inspection on Thursday was to demonstrate that the pitch was playable before the preventative measures we subsequently took. It means that if this match is postponed, we can point to those two things to show best efforts were made.

All of this is just about worth it for the complete meltdowns some people are having on social media.

The referee has the final say. Not sure why you think that’s us “blaming” him.

Unlikely.

Two possibilities in my mind: either it’s just about playable, and the feeling is another couple of hours will do it (it’s dry, windy and starting to brighten up). Or it’s just playable, but they want to see what the weather does before giving a final go-ahead.

That’s not a consideration. There’s been many examples over the years of a team in contention for the top 6 playing at a different time to the rest. The issue will be that the SPFL will want to release the fixtures as soon as possible after next week’s games are done.

Only one commentary game across the weekend. You'll never guess which one.

If you can't see an inconsistency in the SPFL not scheduling Dundee v Rangers for the first available date, and them seriously considering playing a game on a Monday afternoon at a neutral venue behind closed doors to get all fixtures played before the split, then there really is no hope.

There’s only meant to be light rain tomorrow morning, stopping for an hour at 11 If the covers have done their job, that’ll be onto a pitch that is, ostensibly, playable.

11am pitch inspection tomorrow.

That’s quite clearly Carlisle United’s ground.

It doesn’t need to be localised directly above Dens.

We do have a playable pitch, and are taking measures to ensure it remains so. That’s the whole point of yesterday’s inspection. We have been unlucky with the weather. The amount of times we’ve had torrential rain ahead of home fixtures, and bright and dry weather ahead of away fixtures is extraordinary. Can you say with 100% certainty that Tannadice would have been playable on the days of our previous postponements?

There was torrential rain on Wednesday, worse than that which led to the Rangers game being postponed. However, we managed to get the pitch into a playable condition the following day. The pitch is now covered, with covers specifically designed for rain. I don’t see why any of that is irrelevant, when it clearly shows we have taken extensive measures to 1) make the pitch playable; and 2) ensure that it remains so. I’m also still of the view that the total number of postponements is irrelevant unless the SPFL want us to rip our pitch up mid-season.

Sky have EFL games scheduled for next Wednesday. They had nothing scheduled on the 3rd.

Papers have a tendency to exaggerate for effect. What’s likely is that the SPFL (or whoever their VAR equipment contractor is) will own a certain number of screens. When a club no longer requires theirs due to relegation, it’s returned. This screen then may or may not end up in the ground of a club that was promoted.

Ironically, significant snowfall (more than this) is be better than rain because it’s easier to clear from the pitch. However, it’s also likely to see games called off because of dangerous conditions outside the stadium.