Northern League

Division 2

Tuesday 10th October 2023

Kick Off 19.45

Match Postponed at 19.00

Washington P Prudhoe Youth Club P

@ Northern Area Playing Fields

off Stephenson Road

Washington

NE37 3HR

No Admission or Programme.

Well, what a waste of an evening this was! Not to mention the near six hour drive and petrol and hotel costs. I knew that Washington had their home game called off on Saturday, due to a waterlogged pitch, so tweeted the club last night regarding whether there were likely to be any problems tonight pitch wise. Typically, the message wasn’t answered and when they re-tweeted about the match again this afternoon, I (wrongly) assumed all must be okay? No mention whatsoever about the pitch, but why would there be. It was between 22.5 and 23.5 degrees driving up and sunny, with a nice light wind too. And no rain whatsoever!!! Anyway, I arrived at the ground about 18.30 and saw the car park start to fill up. The floodlights were on and the pitch was freshly marked and nets and corner flags were up. Unfortunately, the Referee decided that the pitch was unplayable. It was an area a yard or two square, in one penalty area, apparently, so it was off! Quite how a pitch can be deemed waterlogged on a day like today is baffling. It’s not as if we’re talking about ‘parks football’ here. Now, if it had actually rained, then that’s a different matter……

This should have been my penultimate ground in the Northern League, but one that I’ll probably never bother doing now, as I could never trust that the game would actually take place…..I remember the days when this was a ‘proper’ league! I could do it on a Saturday of course, when there would be numerous alternatives, but as the ground is floodlit, it seems such a waste. Even back up games are no use if the call off comes too late, of course. Had this been called off earlier this afternoon, I’d have done a re-visit at Harrogate Town instead. I hadn’t been there since May 1991 (Ground No.349 at the time) when they drew 1-1 versus Farsley Celtic in a Northern Premier League Division 1 match. They’ve had quite a rise since then. They’re now in the Football League and the ground must have improved a bit too.

It will come as little surprise that the game here at Washington was the only game off tonight in league and cup matches involving Northern League teams. Just to rub it in a bit more, it finished 3-5 at Harrogate!