The Scottish Championship match between Queen’s Park and Ross County, scheduled for Friday night at Lesser Hampden, has been postponed due to dangerous pitch conditions. “Tonight’s match officials have postponed tonight’s William Hill Championship match against Ross County,” Queen’s Park said in a statement.
“This decision was taken after consultation with both the Queen’s Park head coach and the Ross County manager, with player safety in mind.” Ross County apologized to fans for the late notification of the cancellation. Queen’s Park head coach Sean Crichton told BBC Scotland: “There’s a lot of difficult places on the pitch. There’s a lot of areas that aren’t safe for the players.
“I’m really disappointed that the game got called off. It’s not great, but at the end of the day the safety of the players comes first. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone.”
The match, which was scheduled to kick off at 7.45pm, was postponed just 15 minutes early, leaving supporters furious and BBC Scotland busy adjusting its coverage while broadcasting the match.
The refereeing team ruled the pitch unplayable because the frost from the previous night, combined with the rain, made the surface slippery and dangerous.
The BBC had little live coverage before the announcement was made, and the Scottish Sun claimed that no pitch inspections took place on that day, resulting in the cancellation being delayed.
Ross County fans made the 200-mile journey from Dingwall to Glasgow for free, but Queen’s Park has announced refunds are now available.
Ross County coach John Robertson was seen by the Beeb speaking to fans in the stands and explaining the decision.
Queen’s Park manager Sean Crichton said: “Both managers went in and spoke to the referee and the referee went out onto the pitch.
“When I was looking at the pitch I was thinking about the safety of the players and there were a lot of difficult spots on the pitch so they took the decision to cancel the game.
“For some reason there was no pitch inspection today so I don’t know what happened there.
“When we came here we were told the pitch was fine, but when you actually get down there there are a lot of areas that are unsafe for the players.
“I took some advice from the captain and he said it was really slippery so I think we are completely out of the game.
“When I think about Ross County, it’s not ideal for them to get to this point, but the safety of the players is paramount and I think the referee made the right decision.
“He shouldn’t be blamed for that. We all said we’re sorry to each other, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
