Not going to the game

When I picked up my Merseymart, and read that one of our players, Joe Fielding, had walked 3 miles from his home in Standish (which my former manager, who lives there, assured me is the posh part of Wigan) to access transport to Prescot Cables' game at Lancaster City, I felt a bit sheepish not having attended myself. Lancaster is a pleasant town, and I would have had chance to send some photos to my friend Philip from church, who watched Lancaster City when he was at University, and is now spending a year staying with his uncle in New Zealand.

Joe Fielding, on a warmer day

During a cold spell in 2009, I was talking to a Manchester City supporter, who was complaining that one of his side's fixtures, at Portsmouth, had been postponed due to a frozen pitch. The temperature had dropped to at least -5ºC, so it was within the Premier League rules, which state that grounds should be playable in temperatures down to -3ºC. However, it was a surprise that games could be postponed due to the weather, especially as he was not planning to go out in the cold, but to watch the game in a nice warm pub.

For those watching football at our level, the weather is of almost as much interest as to the farming community. When I started watching in 1991, attending winter away games was a lottery. We relied on the weather forecast on the television, or in the morning's paper, which was vague at best, and the best part of a day old. Specific information depended on a call to the club, which relied on an official being able to answer the telephone, rather than being out clearing snow or inspecing the pitch.

Technology has made things easier: club websites and social networks keep us informed of early postponements, and the Met Office website and smartphone app give local forecasts that break the day down into 3 hour segments, so you can get a reasonable idea whether your journey is likely to be fruitless. In this case, light snow had been forecast for Friday evening, turning to rain later. In the event, the forecast rain fell as snow, leaving 3 or 4 inches across the county, and bringing down power lines on the railway line between Wigan and Preston.

The things that make a place attractive to visit often disappear in the winter: the steep streets slippery with slush, the views obscured by fog, which leaves the pubs, which are all very well, but they do have them nearer home.

Lancaster - lots of fires but few televisions

Having spent some time working out alternative routes, including using the club coach, it was announced there would be a pitch inspection at 11.45, with the coach departing as soon as the result was known. With the quick route unavailable, I would need to leave home well before the inspection whatever way I chose to travel, so I tried to second guess the outcome.

When the pitch is inspected early by a local referee, he can call the game off (if he decides there is no reasonable prospect of the pitch being playable), but cannot say it will go ahead, that decision is for the match referee. As the amount of snow we had would melt to form large pools of standing water (Waterloo called off their rugby fixture for that reason), I thought a game was highly unlikely, and decided to stay put.

I was a bit surprised to find, in pictures from those who went to the game, Lancaster had received hardly any snow, in contrast with everywhere in a 50 mile radius. It might have been handy if the person on their Twitter feed who was confident about the game going ahead on Friday had shared that observation on Saturday. NASA published a photo from the morning - if you zoom in, Lancaster is in the small green bit.

I had also thought of going to London for the weekend, where I would have been able to see Dulwich Hamlet play away to Leatherhead, but decided against due to the weather between here and London. The game was abandoned after 78 minutes when about 20 people, mostly teenagers (wearing onesies for some reason I have not been able to fathom) were celebrating Dulwich's second goal, a few of them leaned on the pitch perimeter wall and found themselves flat on the ground when it collapsed. Fortunately no-one was near the wall on the pitch side. It even made The Guardian.

Although we can see all the large debris being removed, the referee considered there may be nails and broken plastic from an advertising hoarding presenting a danger to the players - not having been there, I cannot comment. Looking at people's photos, I think Leatherhead may find themselves replacing more than the collapsed section, as a couple of other bits looked less than straight, or had mortar that looked as though it may have suffered from the weather over the years.