Match Thread Dundee V Aberdeen (Postponed)

[Millerdon]

Dundee have revealed their unhappiness at the late cancellation of their Premiership match against Aberdeen and will be lodging a complaint with the SPFL and the SFA. 

The club announced the postponement of the Premiership clash around an hour before kick-off, following a pitch inspection by match referee David Munro.

Munro had found areas of the pitch to be unplayable and called the match off, reportedly saying there were safety concerns.

Dundee claim that Munro arrived to inspect the pitch later than expected and made the decision without consultation with either club, Police Scotland or anyone else. They feel Munro made the wrong call, with the weather forecast favourable and work being done to improve the playing surface.

The club also pointed out that after the game was called off, their first team squad had been able to train on the pitch, proving that it was not unsafe

[WesthillWanderersFC]

12 minutes ago, sooth_stander said:

It does look like the goalmouths were waterlogged at 1.50pm but surely, they could have been cleared, and with the favourable forecast, the game went ahead, delayed if needs be.

Something clearly isn’t right here, Dundee are at it, for whatever reason

Why would Dundee “be at it”? though?

They had a good chance of beating us today & have been in decent form.

The Tony Doc interview, he’s clearly raging at the ref.

There’s two things to blame:

1) Dundee made no effort to cover the pitch or the area they know is problematic. 
2) The referee, instead of arriving earlier than normal knowing the weather is shite, actually turns up late, then takes no consideration in to what could be done to get it played. (Weather ok at 2.30, a delay for 30 maybe?). 
He then compounds it by calling it off & fucking off without speaking to Docherty, Robson, the police, or the SPFL delegate. 
Which is apparently the protocol. 

So, Dundee should be fined & the SFA should be hauling David Munro in and going through him.

I’ll bet fuck all happens to either & the fans are just told to suck it up. 

And I’ll bet AFC just take it up the hoop as well without a word said 

[ericblack4boss]

Dundee could and probably should have got a local referee to come and make an early call

[DandyWarhol]

24 minutes ago, NorfolkDandy said:

Delay it 30 mins, and take the forecast into consideration?

3500 away fans were 'possibly' in Dundee already

 

Playing devil's advocate, maybe the ref truly felt there was no hope of the goalmouth being safely playable.  If Dundee were smart and really wanted to show that the pitch would've been playable they should've filmed the goalmouth at 3.30pm and showed that it would've been playable (with ball bouncing, running on the surface etc).  Otherwise I'm a bit sceptical of their claims.

[NorfolkDandy]

3 minutes ago, DandyWarhol said:

Playing devil's advocate, maybe the ref truly felt there was no hope of the goalmouth being safely playable.  If Dundee were smart and really wanted to show that the pitch would've been playable they should've filmed the goalmouth at 3.30pm and showed that it would've been playable (with ball bouncing, running on the surface etc).  Otherwise I'm a bit sceptical of their claims.

That's entirely reasonable, DW

I wasn't travelling up for the game, today, however, from the clips I've seen, the ball was rolling, and the weather was improving. Munro apparently turned up late, too

3500 in Dundee to then call it off is unforgiveable 

[Helmet]

34 minutes ago, DandyWarhol said:

As much as I'm sure the ref is an incompetent boob I'm not totally buying Dundees position either.  The pictures of the goalmouth at around 2pm looked miserable and not likely to be safe to play on any time soon.  That they were able to do some training on the pitch is neither here nor there (notice their photo of the players training doesn't show the badly effected areas of the pitch).  I'd also say being able to do some training routines and being able to play a competitive match on a pitch are 2 very different things.

Standing water can drain quite quickly though so waterlogged areas at 2pm means fuck all really.

Dundees attempts to protect/clear the pitch don’t seem up to much but the referee should be in attendance 2 or 3 hours before kick off IMO to check the pitch and then discuss with the clubs if there are problems.

The ref can’t just turn up when he feels like, make a unilateral decision then fuck off without facing the consequences.

But as I keep saying, as long we keep paying amateur refs they’ll continue to just make up their own rules as they fucking please and collect the money - no accountability.

[DandyWarhol]

Just now, NorfolkDandy said:

That's entirely reasonable, DW

I wasn't travelling up for the game, today, however, from the clips I've seen, the ball was rolling, and the weather was improving. Munro apparently turned up late, too

3500 in Dundee to then call it off is unforgiveable 

The fans have been badly letdown. Probably a combination of blame lies with Dundee and the ref for why it was called off so late.  No excuse for that.

[NorfolkDandy]

I'm really keen to know if these kents get paid in full when turning up late and calling it off?

[Helmet]

12 minutes ago, ericblack4boss said:

Dundee could and probably should have got a local referee to come and make an early call

Maybe.

But shouldn’t the referee association do something fucking useful along the way or do we expect them to take no responsibility for anything ever.

[DandyWarhol]

2 minutes ago, Helmet said:

Standing water can drain quite quickly though so waterlogged areas at 2pm means fuck all really.

Dundees attempts to protect/clear the pitch don’t seem up to much but the referee should be in attendance 2 or 3 hours before kick off IMO to check the pitch and then discuss with the clubs if there are problems.

The ref can’t just turn up when he feels like, make a unilateral decision then fuck off without facing the consequences.

But as I keep saying, as long we keep paying amateur refs they’ll continue to just make up their own rules as they fucking please and collect the money - no accountability.

Judging by comments I've seen online from Dundee fans they've had ongoing issues with the pitch whenever there's heavy rain so I'm guessing the drainage at Dens Park ain't great.  The picture of the groundstaff trying to clear the water was vaguely reminiscent of the Partick attempts to clear snow off the pitch many moons ago, so hopefully we'll gub them 7-0 in the rearranged fixture.

[starryfish]

I see Dundee are at home to Celtic live on the tv midweek, bet you their pitch is playable for that 

[sooth_stander]

17 minutes ago, DandyWarhol said:

The fans have been badly letdown. Probably a combination of blame lies with Dundee and the ref for why it was called off so late.  No excuse for that.

I think that’s probably correct. Dundee probably got caught out late, realised they’d fucked up by not getting the pitch checked (and subsequently addressed) earlier, and have piled it onto the referee. 

We also need to ascertain what the protocol is for how a game actually gets postponed. The ref can’t postpone it. He checks the pitch and tells the SPFL match delegate his thoughts and its then up to the latter to check with both clubs and the Old Bill, see if the pitch can be cleared and delay the KO, then an announcement is made, is my understanding.

Dundee’s explanation just doesn’t add up, for me.

[NorfolkDandy]

1 minute ago, sooth_stander said:

I think that’s probably correct. Dundee probably got caught out late, realised they’d fucked up by not getting the pitch checked (and subsequently addressed) earlier, and have piled it onto the referee. 

We also need to ascertain what the protocol is for how a game actually gets postponed. The ref can’t postpone it. He checks the pitch and tells the SPFL match delegate his thoughts and its then up to the latter to check with both clubs and the Old Bill, then an announcement is made, is my understanding 

The ref was late

The protocol is clear

The ref fucked up

[sooth_stander]

1 minute ago, NorfolkDandy said:

The ref was late

The protocol is clear

The ref fucked up

Why wasn’t an effort made to delay kick off, then? 

[Russell]

13 minutes ago, starryfish said:

I see Dundee are at home to Celtic live on the tv midweek, bet you their pitch is playable for that 

Agreed.

Robson out.

[NorfolkDandy]

8 minutes ago, sooth_stander said:

Why wasn’t an effort made to delay kick off, then? 

That's a very good point, SS

[ClayholeRed]

Drove through from Stranraer for this game. Overnight stay in hotel, petrol, ticket price and meals etc amounting to about £200. Won't be able to go to the resheduled game as it will be midweek.

Yes games can get called off late but that should only happen when weather has deteriorated close to kick off. I was in Dundee and if anything weather got better and the forecast was looking no bad. The ref turning up late made no difference to me as I was already there but what a joke. 

Complete and utter disrespect for the fans.

   

[DelMonte]

Why don’t clubs in Scotland just cover the pitches if it rains? Is it not that simple? 

[Tuna]

Ref and assistant refs etc will get a full fee for this!! 

[Sheeptastic]

There's only one conclusion and it's that the authorities are trying to get Aberdeen (and Ross Doohan) relegated.

[Dandyesque]

Probably a good thing the game is off, except for all the fans that travelled.

Dundee never played midweek, while we've had a pretty punishing schedule all season.

Tony Doc is probably pissed off because he knew he had a strong chance of 3 points today

[WesthillWanderersFC]

28 minutes ago, DelMonte said:

Why don’t clubs in Scotland just cover the pitches if it rains? Is it not that simple? 

I’ve been saying that for years.

Common sense to, surely. 

[Russell]

34 minutes ago, DelMonte said:

Why don’t clubs in Scotland just cover the pitches if it rains? Is it not that simple? 

Thickos would probably dump all the water in the goalmouth when they were taking the covers off. 

[RDS]

7 minutes ago, Russell said:

Thickos would probably dump all the water in the goalmouth when they were taking the covers off. 

Agreed after watching the "flat out" effort of the two ground staff at Dens as one rolled water from sodden 18 yard box right in to the already worse saturated 6 yard box at rate faster than his colleague rolled the 6 yard

[strachanmcgheegoal]

My read is the ref has turned up (late) but pissed that there hadn’t been an earlier inspection and basically called Dundee’s bluff.

im less clear what the difference was protocol wise with the hun bus being late.  He’s made a decision unilaterally that the pitch was unplayable at 1.50 AND at all times thereafter.  That’s where I think he’s at fault.

[GAME OF BILLIONS]

Gordon Strachan should have talked the water off the pitch.

 

 

[GAME OF BILLIONS]

36 minutes ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

I’ve been saying that for years.

Common sense to, surely. 

Just play winter games in Scout Huts and jack up the prices in the tuck shop.

[GAME OF BILLIONS]

Scotland v Georgia game was comical, I still shake my head at that epic saga. If we had lost that game, oh fuck me...

[Tattie Took Time]

1 hour ago, NorfolkDandy said:

I'm really keen to know if these kents get paid in full when turning up late and calling it off?

Sure I heard that they get half match fee and are also given the rearranged fixture but I could be wrong. Even if it is that it’s not shabby for turning up late, taking 10 minutes to not do your job properly, then going home!

[RUL]

I dunno why ref is getting blame? He decides if pitch is playable and informs others of his decision, it’s not a debate with managers/police if they agree 😂

dundee are clearly mongos if they thought there was no doubt and the lack of effort to clear pitch summed them up.