Dumbarton vs Stirling Albion

[the snudge]

I'm disgusted at the way the Stirling fans have been treated tonight. That is well and truly on the club. Embarrassing.

This club is sinking. Mackay has to resign and hand over the running of the club to the Trust. It's the only way now. 

I'm done with Dumbarton football club. Fell out of love a while ago but didn't renew this season as Farrell was still in charge. Said I wouldn't be back until he was gone plus the cost of the game is not worth it. The product is shit. He's still there for the foreseeable future. 

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

1 minute ago, the snudge said:

I'm disgusted at the way the Stirling fans have been treated tonight. That is well and truly on the club. Embarrassing.

This club is sinking. Mackay has to resign and hand over the running of the club to the Trust. It's the only way now. 

I'm done with Dumbarton football club. Fell out of love a while ago but didn't renew this season as Farrell was still in charge. Said I wouldn't be back until he was gone plus the cost of the game is not worth it. The product is shit. He's still there for the foreseeable future. 

 

The queuing in the rain thing was quite poor.  It would have been easy enough to ask people to stay in the stadium and then give out tickets as they were leaving.  Like many others I decided just to leave it. 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

9 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

It is our fault. 100%.

I can't say what the weather was like in Dumbarton all day. I can say that it was only just starting to rain when I got off the train at Dumbarton Central at 5pm. So unless it was absolutely pelting down all day, weather up until tea time wasn't really an issue. The problem is that it has rained heavily from just after 5pm. 2 1/2 hours of heavy rain before the game was called off. Forecast was for more rain. Even if the game had started, it was never going to finish.

Should the club have called for an earlier pitch inspection? No. At 5pm that game was almost certainly not at risk. Ref would probably have been at the ground not long after 6pm. At what point would folk have had the club call an inspection?

The problem is that the pitch can't cope with heavy rain. It wasn't draining and no amount of forking would have helped. 2 1/2 hours of heavy rain and the pitch went from playable to unplayable. That's 100% on Dumbarton. That's not something that could have been done on the day. It's a problem that has it's root cause way further back. Our pitch has been badly maintained and it's had 2 teams playing on it. It can't cope and we can't afford to spend enough money to give it a fighting chance. Tonight's postponement is down to nearly 2 years of absolutely woeful ground work. You don't fix that kind of neglect over a 2 month period at the tail end of winter.

I didnt leave the house until after 7. I didnt get into the ground until at least 7:20. The club were still letting fans in at that point, but presumably the ref had already indicated that he was doubtful about the state of the park. Decision should have been made to stop letting people in for 10 minutes and, if needed, to delay the game to 8pm. Would have saved even more people getting into the ground and having to look for a refund. Even when the players were shaking hands and walking off the park, nobody was making an announcement that the game was postponed. Fans were still coming in to the ground. Nobody had advised the turnstile operators that the game was off.

Organisation immediately after the call off was shambolic.

The club can't control the weather. It can try to control the state of the pitch by employing a competent groundsman and making enough money available to maintain the park. Its one thing that you can't compromise on as a football club. To have 2 teams using a poorly maintained park is an impossible situation to deal with. 2 1/2 hours of rain shouldn't be enough after the weather we've had for the Easter weekend to make a pitch unplayable, but 2 years of neglect gives us absolutely no hope in situations like tonight. The club needs to do far better at maintaining the pitch.

Worse than that was the shambolic lack of organisation. If the game is in doubt then let people know. Tell the turnstile operators. Tell the kiosk staff. Tell the stewards. If the game has been called off then get an announcement out over the PA system as soon as possible. Don't wait on fans watching the players and the ref and having to put 2 and 2 together. Tell people. And keep talking with them. Tell them that we'll sort out refunds. Tell them that we'll keep the stadium open so that fans can wait inside. There was a queue of Stirling Albion fans standing in the pissing rain, stretching from the front door to the end of the away section. That's a completely unacceptable way to treat folk. Those fans should have been kept inside where at least it was dry. We should have been talking with them. Keeping them informed. Doing as much as possible to treat them with even a basic shred of decency. Some Stirling fans were able to get a refund in the supporters bar area, but it shouldn't have been some fans. It should have been every visiting Stirling fan. Seeing them standing in the pissing rain at the front door was an embarrassment. 

There is no defending that tonight. A pitch should be able to handle a couple of hours of rain after days of dry weather. If it can't then that's on the club. If the game is at risk then fans should be kept informed. Get it announced over the PA system. Let the stewards and turnstile staff know. If it's called off then let fans know ASAP. Keep them informed. Sort out refunds. Don't expect them to queue in the rain.

The whole sorry mess reflects poorly on our club. We're an absolute basket case. A crooked b*****d of an owner, an incompetent board who don't seem able to run a football club properly and, worse, would struggle to organise a piss up in a brewery when it comes to actually treating fans properly.

To be fair, I live close to the stadium and my garden is also waterlogged which isn’t normally the case. I’m not sure if the rain coincided with high tide or what.

I agree with the rest of your post, our board couldn’t run a fucking bath and the lack of organisation throughout the entire club is nothing short of a complete embarassment. Even the organisation of tonight’s match streaming was an embarassment - it cost more than it was to attend the game and we didn’t announce how to purchase it until 2 hours before kick off, we didn’t even make it clear whether UK residents could purchase it or not. We have paid staff who work down there 3 or 4 days a week who don’t even respond to emails.

[Clarko_son]

11 minutes ago, WattersIsGod said:

That's what I got for queueing up I'm the rain

It wouldn't surprise me if we don't accept those for the rearranged game somehow, although conveniently not telling anyone ahead of the game. 

This should've been one of the best games of the year, pretty much whichever time it was scheduled, in that we had first v second (or the other way round). Instead it's just been a complete and utter farce with us seemingly try to out-do ourselves as to how far we can piss people off. 

Anyone can understand a game being called off due to weather but repeatedly and late and with no communication. It's just inexcusable overall the way it's happened.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Clarko_son

[Sons fan 1872]

Does anyone know possibly jan will. What the timeline is for our injured players? 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Wait, so instead of just handing fans their money back as they left the ground, we went to the effort of printing oot daft wee cardboard passes AFTER the game was called off to hand out to punters who were made to queue in the pissing rain? Who the f**k makes these decisions!?

[Sweet Pete]

Saw a Stirling fan in the carpark saying to some lads he's been at every postponed fixture.

[FifeSons]

21 minutes ago, the snudge said:

I'm disgusted at the way the Stirling fans have been treated tonight. That is well and truly on the club. Embarrassing.

This club is sinking. Mackay has to resign and hand over the running of the club to the Trust. It's the only way now. 

I'm done with Dumbarton football club. Fell out of love a while ago but didn't renew this season as Farrell was still in charge. Said I wouldn't be back until he was gone plus the cost of the game is not worth it. The product is shit. He's still there for the foreseeable future. 

 

Fair play for sticking to your guns. I said the same pre-season, then couldn’t resist going back. Completely agree about the running of the club needing to be in the trust’s hands. We’ve got some really sharp folk in the trust, who would do such a better job. It’s really frustrating.

[optimistic]

Would have played this at boghead, health and safety gone mad these days 

[WattersIsGod]

7 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Wait, so instead of just handing fans their money back as they left the ground, we went to the effort of printing oot daft wee cardboard passes AFTER the game was called off to hand out to punters who were made to queue in the pissing rain? Who the f**k makes these decisions!?

Yep exactly.

I really pity you guys having to put up with that shambles of a club.

Fair play to those of you still supporting your team with ownership and management like this.

Edited April 11, 2023 by WattersIsGod

[StewartyMac]

What a great night. Our supporters bus broke down on the way there, had to wait for a replacement, only to get as far as Balloch and hear the game was off. Total waste of time and money, more so for the poor sods who actually made it there. We're going to win the league anyway, just give us the points and be done with it. Shambles. 

[StewartyMac]

1 minute ago, optimistic said:

Would have played this at boghead, health and safety gone mad these days 

Funnily enough I remember a game at Boghead in the late 80s/early 90s where the exact same thing happened and we got wee vouchers for the rearranged game!!

[TamCarson]

Reading earlier posts, it was said it was the same referee who called it off before at short notice. I take it that it's because he was meant to referee the original fixture. Surely the SFA need to speak with him and see his reasoning for it. Something doesn't add up. I've seen worse pitches, although our pitch isn't great.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

32 minutes ago, the snudge said:

I'm disgusted at the way the Stirling fans have been treated tonight. That is well and truly on the club. Embarrassing.

This club is sinking. Mackay has to resign and hand over the running of the club to the Trust. It's the only way now. 

I'm done with Dumbarton football club. Fell out of love a while ago but didn't renew this season as Farrell was still in charge. Said I wouldn't be back until he was gone plus the cost of the game is not worth it. The product is shit. He's still there for the foreseeable future. 

 

 

6 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

Fair play for sticking to your guns. I said the same pre-season, then couldn’t resist going back. Completely agree about the running of the club needing to be in the trust’s hands. We’ve got some really sharp folk in the trust, who would do such a better job. It’s really frustrating.

Do we not have a Trust rep on the board who’s heavily involved with the day to day running of the club? Does anyone know how long that person is expected to stay in that position for?

[FifeSons]

14 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Wait, so instead of just handing fans their money back as they left the ground, we went to the effort of printing oot daft wee cardboard passes AFTER the game was called off to hand out to punters who were made to queue in the pissing rain? Who the f**k makes these decisions!?

Presumably we didn’t even give the option of a cash refund, just the wee cards. Mental.

[codfish]

7 minutes ago, TamCarson said:

Reading earlier posts, it was said it was the same referee who called it off before at short notice. I take it that it's because he was meant to referee the original fixture. Surely the SFA need to speak with him and see his reasoning for it. Something doesn't add up. I've seen worse pitches, although our pitch isn't great.

I don’t think the ref had a choice tonight - standing water on the pitch from 7.05pm and no let-up in the rain forecast. If anything I was surprised he wasn’t out inspecting the pitch sooner.

 

Saw him chatting with Iain Brines after the postponement, then went out to take photos of the pitch at what would’ve been kick-off time.

[WC Boggs]

The irony of that board handing out red cards to the Binos support is not lost on me.

[Boghead ranter]

1 minute ago, FifeSons said:

Presumably we didn’t even give the option of a cash refund, just the wee cards. Mental.

Ok we've issued a voucher to the value of match entry, but what of the cost of travel to all these failures? And what cost to lost personal time?

We should be paying everyone to come to the next game.

[codfish]

2 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

Presumably we didn’t even give the option of a cash refund, just the wee cards. Mental.

Cash refunds would be an absolute minefield with no evidence of whether someone paid full price, concession or a kids price (or was a season ticket holder chancing it).

[FifeSons]

1 minute ago, codfish said:

Cash refunds would be an absolute minefield with no evidence of whether someone paid full price, concession or a kids price (or was a season ticket holder chancing it).

Fair point, but I think it would’ve the decent thing to do, especially given many Stirling fans will rightly not want to bother coming back. We weren’t charging much more for an adult ticket anyway.