Raynes Park Vale: No hard feelings in fallout from GFC cancellation

Wednesday 13 December 2023

Raynes Park Vale has apologised to anyone who was upset by the ‘boisterous” nature of their players on the return flight, after their match with Guernsey FC was cancelled at the last minute.

After the visiting referee ruled the game on Saturday should not go ahead, the team decamped to The Doghouse before flying back to Gatwick.

“We had a group of 25 young men, stuck away from home, having been prepared for a competitive event which did not happen,” said Raynes Park Vale director Bill Pollard.

“They did what young men in that circumstance do, which is go to the pub and watch football."  

???????? Guernsey vs Raynes Park called off late doors so naturally the Vale boys (still in kit) hit them Doghouse Pub???? B4 ✈️ back to Gatwick. pic.twitter.com/pySdCwh4Dr

— Raynes Park Vale FC (@RPVFC) December 9, 2023

“It was several hours until the return flight. 

“No doubt they were a bit loud and boisterous on the return, but they are a good bunch and we know that there was no aggression or nastiness. We have video of the cabin crew interacting positively and in good spirit with the team.  

“We understand aircraft travel can be claustrophobic and heighten sensitivity and so we apologise if the increased volume caused any aggravation for others on the flight, which luckily is only 45 minutes long.”

It follows complaints made on social media.

The club is now keen that the rescheduled fixture is played on a Saturday - or at a neutral venue near Gatwick.

“With only one exception, no team this season is scheduled to visit Guernsey on a weeknight which is not a holiday.  

“Such a trip would cause our players to miss work, and some of them simply cannot do that.  

“Which means a weeknight reschedule of the fixture would put us at a competitive disadvantage. We realise GFC travels often, but they themselves only have a couple away fixtures on weeknights this season and their players know a heavy travel schedule is part of being on the team, which we respect.  

“But for our players and other teams in the league, missing work is not part of the package of playing this level of football. So we would like to do one of two things:  replay the game on a Saturday, or replay it during the week at a neutral venue, perhaps near Gatwick to make it easy for GFC to travel to. This is up to the league to decide, not us. Hopefully something can be done to enable it to be played on a Saturday.”

The club had a 25 strong group fly in for the fixture.

It was the first game called off because the pitch was deemed unplayable in eight years, when drainage improvements were made at Footes Lane.

Guernsey Raiders played the night before.

“It was quite apparent that the pitch was unplayable and this was not a surprise given there had been a professional rugby game the evening before and wet weather.  

“Rugby teams will tear up a wet pitch very dramatically and unless the pitch is immediately maintained in order to fix this damage, it will be unsuitable for football for a while afterwords. Unfortunately the pitch had not been touched at all even when our team arrived at the ground two hours before the match was scheduled to kick off.”

He said that the fact the pitch was unplayable was not the fault of GFC.

“Our issue was that if the pitch had been inspected early in the morning as is customary, we could have avoided flying to Guernsey for no purpose. That we do feel was GFC’s responsibility and it clearly did not happen as we were assured that all was well just before we boarded our flight.  

“We know there is discussion of the lack of a referee locally to officially call off the game, but… no qualification was necessary to know that no football was possible that day.  There are procedures to follow in this circumstance and they were not.  

“But we do not wish to make a drama of this. GFC have not had many games cancelled in the past, so perhaps were not prepared for this series of events. They will have learned from this and on we go. We were inconvenienced, but GFC was financially out of pocket.  Both sides lost. There are no hard feelings on our side.”