Championship side Birmingham City were set to face League One outfit Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup this weekend but the game was cancelled at the very last second.
Since the postponement, I have spoken to frustrated fans from both sides who travelled a long way to the ground, only for it to be called off.
In fact, one set of Rovers fans travelled all the way from Yorkshire and Stacy Naylor expressed their frustration:
“Us as a family, it’s cost £70 in fuel, the husband is gutted about now having to go shopping, disappointed as we won’t be able to make the rescheduled game as it will probably be a Tuesday night which means taking the little one out of school early is both and having to use annual leave. Annoyed that after a night of relentless rain the pitch was not inspected earlier but we have got used to it.”
When asked about what the club could do to help out, they added:
“There is not a lot that they can do as it’s down to the weather, obviously annoying for those that had already set off, FGR could maybe of fed and watered those that had already arrived. Love that they donate the food also. Obviously the pitch inspection could be done earlier with the FGR media team notify quickly as Birmingham actually shared the information before FGR did.”
Meanwhile, Birmingham fan Beth Williams explained their set of fans’ annoyance, “We left about 8.50 and just got back about 11, so that’s over 2 hours of wasted time and petrol. We didn’t see the tweet about the pitch inspection until after we were already on the motorway, so there was no point in turning around until we knew for sure, the game was called off.”
The game has since been rearranged as a midweek fixture as expected and will be played next Tuesday, January 18 at 7:45pm.
Whoever wins the tie will then face Blackburn Rovers in the fourth round on the weekend of January 28.
