Game off

[lazyfecklessblade]

I

It may have been that it is just a fault and is not working or broke. These things happen.

However, every other club with undersoil heating in the top two divisions (assuming Pompey don't?) had no such issues. So the club has to take full responsibility.

Surely if there was an issue they knew earlier than 10am (they would have known yesterday or first thing this morning you'd assume?) and any problem could have thus seen an earlier inspection at least - alerted the ref. I can only think the club thought the ref would be ok with it, so didn't bother telling him which is a huge gamble. It seems that late, he would have not even planned an inspection (heard nothing about one) and only called it off when he first went out?

Even accepting that things go wrong, to not get the game on is really amateurish and for the decision to be made so late makes it even worse as they will have known they couldn't change the KO time due to regulations/Sky (However crap that is).

It's really poor by the club and reflects badly on a professional operation. Not sure there can be much defence of them. They have a system that probably is only needed for maybe a handful of days out of 365 and the system the club operates failed, making it a waste of time.

Bang on, these things do happen - but they happen a lot less if you’re a properly organised, professional outfit who aren’t cutting corners.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Has it been confirmed the undersoil heating wasn’t left on?

The official SUFC statement says undersoil heating was used as normal, however an area of the pitch (the touch line on the JS side) was still frozen
So attempts were made to rectify this (I’ve seen photos of blower heaters along the John Street stand touchline) but it still didn’t work.

 

[JustLookin]

Has it been confirmed the undersoil heating wasn’t left on?

We went into the ground, and most of the pitch was fine. They had some giant heaters turned on along the touch line in from of the technical areas.

Those same heaters were sitting in the car park yesterday afternoon, btw.

 

[thehet]

The official SUFC statement says undersoil heating was used as normal, however an area of the pitch (the touch line on the JS side) was still frozen
So attempts were made to rectify this (I’ve seen photos of blower heaters along the John Street stand touchline) but it still didn’t work.

What is the point in having undersoil heating if, when "used as normal", parts of the pitch remain frozen.

 

[Slim Man]

Has it been confirmed the undersoil heating wasn’t left on?

Nope, apparently it was turned on according to United. Therefore it's not fit for purpose.

It's absolutely amateurish as Deadbat has said above.

I honestly think trying to defend the club in this is really silly. Just admit it's shit.

 

[Zlatan]

Anyone have any know how on ticket refunds? Short of just going into the ticket office. Can you just ring them? Booked online but there's no refund option online. None of us can make a rescheduled mid week fixture. Will cost the club thousands this

I couldn't make a night match last season due to a family emergency. I phoned the ticket office about 6pm, gave them my customer number and they refunded it within 30 seconds. If you give them a bell I'm sure they will sort it for you.

 

[Bartleby]

Anyone have any know how on ticket refunds? Short of just going into the ticket office. Can you just ring them? Booked online but there's no refund option online. None of us can make a rescheduled mid week fixture. Will cost the club thousands this

Yes you can ring them for a refund. I've had to do it a couple of times no problem. You do lose you £1 "booking fee" though.

Not sure why there's no refund/cancel option on the website, it's a pretty basic feature that you expect to find on online ordering systems these days.

 

[Silent Blade]

Think you’re right, thanks. I was wondering this! Rearranged to 13th Feb 1996.

Same match programme used with an updated sheet - don’t have a hard copy but found below image on internet. You got a less blurry image of the front cover I could use for a social post by any chance please Silent Blade - not got this one in my collection…

Try Sharrowblade 's website

Sharrowblade’s albums | Flickr

www.flickr.com

 

[Bartleby]

Aside from the conspiracy theories and "tinpot" accusations there is actually a very simple explanation, its just not as much fun .

Having spent most of my life in subsurface heating and cooling systems, these systems are made up of a series of loops of pipework .it absolutely not unusual for some loops covering one of the areas to fail , many who have UFH will have experienced this .

Simple mechanical failure in circulation , actuation or a simple air lock can cause this and it cant be anticipated, it just happens .

Mechanical devices fail , at the most inopportune times , and thats probably as simple as it is .

Its not quite as much fun as conspiracy or lack of funds or anything but its the most likely explanation.

In your experience can these failed parts be fixed without digging up the pitch? If not I guess we can expect more disruption over the winter.

 

[Deadbat]

What is the point in having undersoil heating if, when "used as normal", parts of the pitch remain frozen.

Yes, basically if it was used as normal and it didn't work, it's pointless having it.

There is a far worse forecast this week so be interesting to see what happens for the game next weekend. If the system is broke/ineffective then that game will be off too you'd think?

 

[Sheffsteel]

What is the point in having undersoil heating if, when "used as normal", parts of the pitch remain frozen.

As mentioned….it makes me wonder if the undersoil heating was just installed to cover the playing area.

So now that Seles asked for the pitch to be widened then a small part of the extended playing area (on the John St side) is no longer covered by undersoil heating but we assumed we could address this area using commercial blower heaters…..and it looks like it’s not worked.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Do you not think it makes more sense to play a struggle Oxford side now and keep the momentum going?

We can rest players next week in the cup.

You have just stated why we would not have deliberately let the pitch freeze, They are struggling we are playing well why would we giv e up a chance to put 3 points on the board!!.
Just crazy to think that we are happy with the situation.Wilder and the players will he frustrated ! Like we fans. No logic in your comments at sll.

 

[thehet]

Mechanical devices fail , at the most inopportune times , and thats probably as simple as it is .

And the most inopportune time happens to be when we need it. Therefore it is unreliable.

 

[Rodley]

Yes, basically if it was used as normal and it didn't work, it's pointless having it.

There is a far worse forecast this week so be interesting to see what happens for the game next weekend. If the system is broke/ineffective then that game will be off too you'd think?

They won’t remedy this unless they dig up the pitch, or alter its width which I imagine they can’t do during the season.

We don’t have an early kick off in the extreme cold so you’d hope it doesn’t become an issue.

 

[Rodley]

Aside from the conspiracy theories and "tinpot" accusations there is actually a very simple explanation, its just not as much fun .

Having spent most of my life in subsurface heating and cooling systems, these systems are made up of a series of loops of pipework .it absolutely not unusual for some loops covering one of the areas to fail , many who have UFH will have experienced this .

Simple mechanical failure in circulation , actuation or a simple air lock can cause this and it cant be anticipated, it just happens .

Mechanical devices fail , at the most inopportune times , and thats probably as simple as it is .

Its not quite as much fun as conspiracy or lack of funds or anything but its the most likely explanation.

Good to have an educated view!

 

[Bladeloyal]

only one company to blame and thats sky if this was 3pm it would have kicked it was -6 at 5 am this morning people some people need to grow the fuck up and stop stamping their feet

Undersoil heating works to minus 20

 

[thehet]

As mentioned….it makes me wonder if the undersoil heating was just installed to cover the playing area.

So now that Seles asked for the pitch to be widened then a small part of the extended playing area (on the John St side) is no longer covered by undersoil heating but we assumed we could address this area using commercial blower heaters…..and it looks like it’s not worked.

So we would spend millions on a fixed size heating system that only partially covers a variable size playing area? Sounds like United for sure. #princeout

 

[Rodley]

Yes, basically if it was used as normal and it didn't work, it's pointless having it.

There is a far worse forecast this week so be interesting to see what happens for the game next weekend. If the system is broke/ineffective then that game will be off too you'd think?

Just looked at the forecast - it was minus 5 overnight but looks to be milder for the rest of the week? “much worse”?

 

[jt64]

Anyone have any know how on ticket refunds? Short of just going into the ticket office. Can you just ring them? Booked online but there's no refund option online. None of us can make a rescheduled mid week fixture. Will cost the club thousands this

At the same time, I couldn't make today because of trains but can make midweek

 

[thehet]

I

Bang on, these things do happen - but they happen a lot less if you’re a properly organised, professional outfit who aren’t cutting corners.

When was the last time a Premier League game was called off for a frozen pitch?

 

[Cassius Kray]

There is a far worse forecast this week so be interesting to see what happens for the game next weekend. If the system is broke/ineffective then that game will be off too you'd think?

Where have you seen this? The BBC forecast suggests it will be wet but won't go below freezing at all after Wednesday - with Sunday's temperatures 5-8 degrees higher than today.

 

[The Fox]

In your experience can these failed parts be fixed without digging up the pitch? If not I guess we can expect more disruption over the winter.

Absolutely, its not emitter (pipe) failure in the most cases just circulation failure .
Undersoil invariably uses quite low temperature water in larger diameter pipework , basically meaning theres a lot of volume of water to shift around long loops of pipe , Remember its not heating just frost protection.

Its doubtful only one pump covers the entire system as it wouldn't make practical sense, a single pump failure covering part of the system or something as simple as a fuse or contact and nothings going to work on the affected section . Guess they found that when they got there this morning.

Just one of those things , guess we've all woken up to find the heatings not working at some time, even on a well serviced system , its not different.

I guess the pic below might give people some idea of what's below the pitch.

 

[Crafty Blade]

Or systems break unexpectedly from time to time regardless of what pre-planning is in place. It’s not always due to incompetence but maybe that’s a bit too nuanced for some of the service continuity managers on here.

sure, but if it was due to a fault, you'd have thought the club would have said so

 

[Rochdaleblade]

Sounds like my underfloor heating in my kitchen. Walking on it in bare feet makes it obvious that certain parts of it are no longer working. I would be interested to know when the undersoil heating was last checked.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

From SUFC's social media:

Today's Sky Bet Championship fixture against Oxford United has been postponed.

The referee was called to Bramall Lane this morning with parts of the playing surface frozen and following an inspection he has taken the decision to call off the fixture due to concerns over player safety.

An announcement regarding a rearranged date will be confirmed in due course.

Officials at Sheffield United are extremely disappointed the fixture could not go ahead.

In the build up to the game, our pre-match procedures for forecasted low temperatures were followed, which included the use of our undersoil heating system.

This morning a small section of the playing surface was raised as a cause for concern. With this area still part frozen, all attempts were made to address this section of the pitch for it to meet the standard required for the match to go ahead.

The referee was then called in at the earliest possible opportunity to assess the playing surface. After he arranged an inspection, he deemed there to be a player safety concern, and opted to call off the fixture at 10am.

 

[Bashambauer]

Try Sharrowblade 's website

Sharrowblade’s albums | Flickr

www.flickr.com

Brilliant resource thanks Silent Blade and Sharrowblade

 

[Snowflake]

It may have been that it is just a fault and is not working or broke. These things happen.

However, every other club with undersoil heating in the top two divisions (assuming Pompey don't?) had no such issues. So the club has to take full responsibility.

Surely if there was an issue they knew earlier than 10am (they would have known yesterday or first thing this morning you'd assume?) and any problem could have thus seen an earlier inspection at least - alerted the ref. I can only think the club thought the ref would be ok with it, so didn't bother telling him which is a huge gamble. It seems that late, he would have not even planned an inspection (heard nothing about one) and only called it off when he first went out?

Even accepting that things go wrong, to not get the game on is really amateurish and for the decision to be made so late makes it even worse as they will have known they couldn't change the KO time due to regulations/Sky (However crap that is).

It's really poor by the club and reflects badly on a professional operation. Not sure there can be much defence of them. They have a system that probably is only needed for maybe a handful of days out of 365 and the system the club operates failed, making it a waste of time.

Is it not possible that the system was working well yesterday but encountered a problem in the early hours of this morning ?
Sadly when things do not go as we wish we always have to find someone to blame . Why ?

 

[Snowflake]

Yes, basically if it was used as normal and it didn't work, it's pointless having it.

There is a far worse forecast this week so be interesting to see what happens for the game next weekend. If the system is broke/ineffective then that game will be off too you'd think?

Next weekend has a forecast of warmer weather and rain. Let’s hope the drainage system works !!

 

[thehet]

Is it not possible that the system was working well yesterday but encountered a problem in the early hours of this morning ?
Sadly when things do not go as we wish we always have to find someone to blame . Why ?

It's not blame people look for, it's accountability.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Hull off too. Seems they had the issue with sides of the pitch we had.

They had much longer to fix it and warmer temperatures too. And a blow torch