Carlisle United boss Chris Beech backs decision to abandon Harrogate Town fixture
Carlisle United manager Chris Beech is adamant that the decision to abandon Tuesday night’s League Two fixture at Harrogate Town was the correct one.
Despite deeming the turf at the EnviroVent Stadium playable during a 5pm pitch inspection, referee Martin Coy called a halt to proceedings at 7.57pm, just 10 minutes into the contest.
Town boss Simon Weaver has criticised the decision to bring the teams off, but his opposite number felt that Mr Coy made the right call.
“He [the referee] just said that the pitch isn’t safe for the players and to be fair to him, he’s right,” Beech said.
“At 5pm, when the snow had just come off the pitch, you could argue, I suppose, that there’s a half-hour window there where you’re thinking it’s got a good chance.
“As the night carries on, the temperature drops and the pitch has just got harder. The players’ actions have made the referee make a decision.
“On the ground it’s pretty treacherous so they’ve made the right call. You could argue it was the wrong time, but he’s tried his best to get the game on.
“We’ve tried our best to be sportsmanlike, to be competitive and do what we are meant to do here.”
Injuries and unavailability meant that Carlisle travelled to North Yorkshire missing a number of first-team regulars and had to name some inexperienced youngsters on their substitutes’ bench.
Beech, however, insists that he wanted the match to go ahead, and for it to reach a conclusion, even though the Cumbrians found themselves a goal down within 60 seconds of kick-off.
“I let Simon [Weaver] lead. I didn’t say on or off, I was quite happy to follow whatever the home team wanted to do and they seemed energised to get the game on,” the United chief added.
“Half of their team were 100 per cent coming up to me saying ‘we shouldn’t have started the game’, none of my team said it to me.
“The referee came over to the halfway-line, I’m 10 yards away from him, there was no indication from me to encourage a negative outcome here, not one bit.
"We have a lot thrown at us at this club and all we do is get ourselves in the best position to fight for our club and that's what we've done tonight, but the referee has called it."