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Sunday, December 14, 2025

'It's a disgrace': Radcliffe boss hits out at officials and Edgar Street pitch

Radcliffe's joint manager Anthony Johnson has heavily criticised the Edgar Street pitch as his side were knocked out of the FA Trophy by Hereford.

Hereford won 4-2 on penalties with the score 1-1 at full time, but Johnson was blunt in his assessment: "I didn't think the game should have been played, if I'm totally honest."

With sand covering four corners of the pitch, which hasn't seen first-team action for more than a month with rain and drainage problems causing untold problems for groundsman Ben Bowen, the pitch passed an 8.15am inspection and it was game on.

Though when the match officials arrived, along with both sets of management, there were calls to postpone the tie due to the playing surface.

In his post-match interview, Johnson said: "Both sets of management expressed concerns with the pitch. I actually feel sorry for the groundsman; he's got to try and put this right."

He added: "The reason we expressed concern was the safety element. We've actually picked up a rolled ankle in one of the areas over there, Olly Thornley, and he [the referee] wasn't bothered, he wasn't interested in that.

"So when they walk around with a ball, dropping the ball and the ball doesn't bounce and they still play the game anyway, you're like, 'what's the point?'.

"We've all watched what you've done. You've made a bit of a clown of yourself by doing what you're doing. You and your mates dropping a ball into an area, there's no bounce.

"Then he comes over and asks for our opinion whether we think it should be played; we said no and he played it anyway.

"We're getting to a stage where I seem to be talking about officials quite a lot. That today, in my opinion, shouldn't have been played.

"It was, that's not sour grapes, absolutely nothing to do with the result."

Later in the evening, Johnson then posted on X: "The game shouldn’t have been played, the pitch is a disgrace, your manager and staff agreed."

With new drains now installed at Edgar Street, and Bowen putting in long hours with late nights and early mornings, hopefully Hereford's pitch problems will soon be behind them.

The next home game will be Boxing Day for the derby against Kidderminster Harriers - a money-spinning fixture, if the pitch holds up.