AFC Telford United lodge official complaint over late Fylde postponement

The Bucks were disappointed not to discover their National League North fixture had fallen foul to adverse weather conditions until arriving at Mill Farm at 1pm.

Following an inspection, Fylde publicised the postponement at 1.25pm, when they confirmed that ‘following discussions between match officials and club staff the decision was made to postpone the fixture’. The statement claimed the decision laid with the referee after morning snow had led to an ‘ice like slush’ which meant the ball did not roll.

Telford were frustrated as, having made checks with the hosts on Friday and throughout Saturday morning, they claim they were told Fylde were not expecting any issues. Some Bucks supporters had arrived by the time of the postponement.

The home side offered Telford an apology within their statement, in which they claimed the snow was not forecast.

The Bucks had a similar issue at the beginning of the season, when a trip to Darlington was postponed at the 11th hour due to Covid issues, again at cost to the club.

It is believed Telford have not been reimbursed for losses from the cancelled Darlington trip, in which they handed travelling away coach fans full refunds.

AFC Telford head of football operations Luke Shelley said: “It’s extremely disappointing for a second time this season that we as a club and our supporters have travelled to a game to find it has been called off late in the day.

“These trips are extremely costly for the football club and it’s not fair on the supporters who put in so effort, time and expense to follow their club.

“Fylde made contact with us on Friday afternoon to say they weren’t expecting any issues with the pitch but asked us what time we would be leaving as they would be getting a local referee in should they think there would be any issues.

“We checked with them again just after 9am and they gave us the all-clear to travel, I then made contact a further two times during our journey to check all was still OK. Fylde confirmed they weren’t expecting any issues.

“It was at 1pm we we were arriving at the stadium did we receive a call to say game was off as the referee had declared the pitch unplayable.”