Grays chairman apologises to Carlisle Utd over FA Cup farce
Last updated 13:33, Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Grays Athletic chairman Mick Woodward today issued a personal apology to the travelling Carlisle United fans after last night’s farcical abandoned FA Cup replay.
A floodlight failure forced the first round tie to be abandoned - with Grays having just gone 1-0 up - and rescheduled for Saturday week.
United fans, around 200 of whom left the New Recreation Ground furious at the tie’s premature end, now face another 660-mile round trip to watch their side try to reach the second round.
And Woodward said his heart went out to the Blues faithful who made the trek to Essex last night.
“As chairman of the club I really am very sorry for them,” he told News & Star Sport.
“They came a long way and I feel for them. They are nice people and were very good to us up at Carlisle, and we want to return the compliment.
“We will get the game back on and may the best side win.”
Woodward said one of the bulbs blew in a floodlight at the ground’s Bradbourne End, and there had been no hope of fixing it in time for the game to resume.
An appeal went out over the public address system for an electrician shortly after the light failed, but half-an-hour later the match was officially called off by referee David Phillips.
“If it was the electricity that had gone, we’d have had half a chance,” added Woodward. “But when the bulbs have blown on top of a tower at 8 o’clock at night, you find it hard.
“We were frantic in there trying to get it back on. We were 1-0 up and had Carlisle on the back foot. We had them for the taking and wanted the game on. But we’ve got to move on.”
Sam Sloma had put the Blue Square Premier strugglers ahead in the 19th minute, seconds before the floodlight failure.
It is not the first time Grays have suffered floodlight faults in recent weeks - their Setanta Shield clash with Chelmsford last Tuesday was abandoned when all the lights failed - but Woodward insisted last night’s faults were unrelated.
“The last time, they just didn’t switch on,” he said. “This time they were on, and the bulb blew. We think the ignitors at the bottom have burned out and that’s what caused the problem. We have got the people who installed them to come out and rectify it, and the game looks like it will be on Saturday week.”
That date has yet to be confirmed by the FA, but it seems next Saturday is by far the likeliest choice. Grays’s offer to play the game tonight was immediately rejected by United, while the idea of rearranging it for next Tuesday is unlikely to be successful given that Carlisle are due to be in League One action at Millwall that night.
