'Out of our hands' - Crawley Town boss' reaction to Charlton Athletic postponement
Crawley Town’s game with Charlton Athletic has been called off due to a waterlogged pitch just 20 minutes before kick off – following three inspections.
The match was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch just 20 minutes before kick-off following three inspections by referee Sunny Singh Gill.
There were certain areas of the pitch which were a concern and with the weather not forecast to improve, the game was called off with the players’ safety in mind.
The decision frustrated the sell out crowd as boos welcomed the decision.
Reds boss Rob Elliot said: “It's out of our hands unfortunately. The referee's got to make their decisions based on whatever they make their decisions on and you have to respect that.
"It's obviously disappointing for everyone to be in the stadium and so close to kick-off andon New Year's Day with a full crowd, especially with the atmosphere the way it was at Birmingham.
“So from our point of view, we lose out on that. You just have to go with what the rules say and I suppose that player safety is the main thing that you have to adhere by because if anything goes wrong.
"That's the reason these things are in place in the first place. So frustrating because it’s a good New Year's Day game for us, but you have to control the controllables.”
The players went straight to the gym after the the decision was made and are now in preparation for a trip to Barnsley on Saturday and Elliot looked for the positives.
"It gives us an opportunity to prep for Barnsley, so we'll go and figure that all out now because it does change plans,” he said. “But I just said to the players, ‘you've prepared right, you've sacrificed over Christmas and we've probably been given the worst fixture schedule over this festive period to be honest with you’.
"So maybe this gives us a little bit of a breathing space for where we've been put in one position. We have to use it as a positive as best we can.”