'They refused to play': Furious Havant & Waterlooville hit back at controversial Westleigh Park allegations
The match was initially delayed by a kit clash in a controversial evening at Westleigh Park
Farnham Town have been accused of refusing to play against the Hawks as a war of words has erupted following a night of Westleigh Park controversy.
Wednesday evening’s Southern League Southern Central clash was postponed following an argument over an essential repair to the 3G playing surface.
With the kick-off initially delayed following a kit clash, Farnham identified a damaged area of the five-year-old artificial pitch, approximately eight yards from the left-hand penalty area.
According to Hawks general manager Gary Pratt, the hole was 24cm long and 3mm deep and swiftly repaired to enable the game to go ahead.
However, following subsequent complaints to match officials from the visitors over the ongoing state of the repaired area, the fixture was postponed - much to the Hawks’ frustration.
Farnham have since posted a statement accusing the Westleigh Park club of previously being aware of the pitch issue and thereby allowing a ‘significant injury risk’ to players.
Yet Pratt has hit back at those damaging claims - and blames Farnham for the match not going ahead.
He told The News: ‘Our pitch is deemed to be one of the best in the league, it was a bizarre evening and the people we feel sorry for are both sets of supporters.
‘An allegation like this puts the facility on the map for having negative press, which was unwarranted. It was Farnham who caused the postponement by refusing to play.
‘They reported a small tear in the pitch and asked for that to be fixed, which we did on the evening. We cleared out the debris of the area, compacted the pitch down and then allowed them and the referee to inspect it.
‘Farnham were unhappy with the repair, so a meeting then took place in the referee’s dressing room with their manager, myself and the Farnham club secretary, along with the three match officials.
‘There were questions raised by Farnham about the suitability of that area. The referee did not confirm the game was being postponed because of the pitch, he basically said: “Are you refusing to play the game on the basis you are not happy with the pitch?”. The referee only postponed it because Farnham refused to play the game.
‘We completely refute their claims that we were aware of this issue before, we’ve had no problems with that area. As part of any 3G pitch, you have a regular maintenance plan, so our quarterly visit was on Thursday.
‘S&C Slatter, who installed our excellent pitch, have since inspected the area and, in the opinion of the workforce who visited today, the work we carried out on that area rendered it safe to play on. There are no issues. Basically, they told us the game didn’t need to be called off.
‘We don’t actually know the cause, the seams are glued together and it might be that the glue has failed and come apart. We have recompacted it to the point where, after the repair, if you actually pulled the turf, the seam didn’t come apart again.
‘We couldn’t glue it anyway. Firstly, it defaults the warranty on the pitch. Secondly, the glue would need time to set and that would cause the game to be postponed anyway. And thirdly, it was too cold for the glue to dry in a quick fashion.
‘Then, as soon as the game was called off, Farnham wanted to train on the half of the pitch which they deemed unsafe! We flatly refused and asked them to leave the pitch area. I was absolutely dumbfounded.’
Following an assessment of the Westleigh Park pitch this morning, two scheduled matches at the venue are expected to go ahead as planned this weekend.
Clanfield host Newport (Isle of Wight) on Saturday, while Pompey Women face Crystal Palace on Sunday - with both assured their matches will not be affected.
‘Following this, Havant officials made attempts to repair the tear in the playing surface while both teams continued their pre-match preparations, but were unsuccessful in their efforts to repair the tear.
‘After which, following discussions between all parties, the match officials postponed the fixture on the basis that the pitch was unsafe for play and all players were escorted off the pitch.
‘It’s our understanding that the tear in the playing surface was known to Havant and Waterlooville ahead of this game and they opted to attempt to proceed with the fixture, and this tear was already scheduled to be repaired after the fixture was played.
‘At Farnham Town, we conduct ourselves in the interests of player safety, and it was very clear that there was a significant injury risk for both sets of players and officials if the game was to go ahead.’