Reason doesn’t hold water

July 18 2014

Shepparton News

Goulburn Valley Suns are not satisfied with the reason behind a Football Federation Victoria referee calling off Saturday’s under-20 fixture against Port Melbourne.

The Suns made the 193 km trip to JL Murphy Reserve, warmed up and were ready to play only for the game to be called off 15 minutes prior to kick-off.

The main points of the referee’s incident report were the game was called off due to an ‘‘extreme amount of water in the goal area at both ends’’ and the game had to be cancelled so the pitch would not be affected for the senior game.

Suns under-20 coach Serkan Aktas dismissed the reasoning.

‘‘We’ve played on much worse pitches than that and the pitch held up fine after the seniors match,’’ Aktas said.

‘‘They had a bit of water the previous night and there was a part of the goal area that had been resewed and probably would have been cut up because it hadn’t been there long, but regardless, the pitch was fine.’’

The pitch was deemed fit for action in the seniors and there was no discernible splashing in the goal area to suggest an extreme amount of water in the goal area.

Suns junior committee member Nicole Varley said the club had sent an email to National Premier Leagues Victoria head of competition Liam Bentley requesting an explanation for the abandonment and what the next step was.

‘‘We’re just not sure what the rules are,’’ Varley said.

‘‘Do we get the points or is it rescheduled, but we haven’t had any information back as to whether the match will be postponed or not.

‘‘We’ve also let them know the abandonment has left us out of pocket.’’

Bentley confirmed he had received the Suns’ email and would respond in due course.

‘‘I’ll investigate what happened, but generally we’ll leave it up to the referee to make the right call,’’ Bentley said.

‘‘We will be in touch with the club to work out a date to play the game because obviously midweek travel is not ideal for that level of (soccer).’’