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'The club is aware of various posts and statements being made following yesterday’s postponement of our home fixture against Hereford and would like to clarify matters.
Extensive efforts were made during the week to prepare the pitch, culminating in a team working on it all day on Friday. At the end of these efforts the pitch was in relatively good shape but the club still arranged for a qualified official to attend Latimer Park (at our own cost) to perform a precautionary pitch inspection BEFORE Hereford’s scheduled departure time.
The official passed the pitch and the game was confirmed as being on.
The match officials arrived at the ground around noon and no further inspection was made until concerns were raised by the Hereford management team. At this point the match Referee made an inspection, resulting in the game being called off. The Poppies players and management team wanted the game to be played and made their feelings known to the match officials. But for this game to go ahead both teams had to be prepared to play and sadly this was not the case yesterday
The club is obviously disappointed for all fans that made the trip, especially those from Hereford, but there was little more that we could have done. We took the advice, following the early inspection, that the game could be played, and had no choice but to accept the match official’s decision that it could not. As a result this fixture will now have to be re-arranged for a Tuesday evening in the next month or so.
The club is also aware of several pictures being circulated, some of which were taken of the non-playing areas in front of the tunnel and team dugouts. These were obviously being circulated to demonstrate the ‘worst areas’ but as stated some of these were away from the playing surface.
We will announce the fixture's rescheduled date once it has been agreed.'