BARROW plan to lodge a complaint over the “baffling” decision to postponement the City game.

Referee Tom Nield pulled the plug on this afternoon’s match just over an hour before kick-off over concerns about an area of the pitch.

The Wakefield-based official was unhappy with the goal mouth at the Holker Street end.

 

 

“There’s a two per cent area where the ref was saying the grass was quite loose and in the six-yard box, the ball doesn’t bounce,” said Barrow boss Pete Wild.

“Anyone that’s been to Holker Street this year will know that when the weather comes here, the ball might not bounce a little bit. It’s the same with any League Two pitch.

“I was at the Bradford game on Wednesday night and it was a tough pitch. Salford last Saturday was a mud-bath the last 20 minutes and we had a right scrap.

“But nobody cared. They just wanted to get on with it.

“I’m really baffled, disappointed and frustrated.”

Wild arranged a training session for his squad in the middle of the pitch after City had left to return to West Yorkshire.

He added: “I actually offered Bradford to train in the other half of the pitch to us and we could have maybe had a training game.

“Graham (Alexander) was up for it but he thought it might not be good with the Football League and I understand that.

“I thought I’d seen a lot in football but today has just topped it off.

“I’m frustrated because both teams want to play. You’ve got 900 Bradford fans in the town, you’ve got a sold-out hospitality, you’ve got Barrow fans wanting to see a football match.

“You work hard all week to come up with a plan to make sure you are ready for these games. You’ve got the finances that go into putting any League Two football match on.

“For it to be called off in the manner it has, both sets of fans and football clubs have been highly disrespected.

“He said that one manager wanted it on, one wanted it off. Graham and I said to him, ‘you’re the referee, you make the decision’ and he’s come to that conclusion.

“He’s had a lot of phone calls to the Football League and the head of referees. What the head of referees is telling me what he said is different so it’s an absolute mess.

“Right in the middle of it are two frustrated football clubs.”