Solihull Moors P-P Hartlepool United analysis – Storm Dennis postponement inevitable as Pools face daunting Tuesday night trip to Damson Park

By the time the 9:30am pitch inspection took place at Damson Park on Saturday, six National League fixtures had been postponed.

A further three matches, including Hartlepool’s, were then called off as Storm Dennis had almost entirely decimated this weekend’s fixture schedule – just three fifth tier matches went ahead.

Pools had made the journey down on Friday, training at Aston Villa’s training ground where it probably became apparent that a postponement was on the cards.

A glimmer of hope was offered in the form of a statement released by Solihull on Friday afternoon. While the statement confirmed that Storm Dennis would hit Damson Park roughly an hour before kick-off, the Moors offered some reassurance by stating a number of preventative measures had been carried out on the pitch.

As of Friday evening, Solihull were ‘hopeful’ rather than confident the game would go ahead based on the weather forecast.

Their statement also warned that should the weather be worse than expected then a pitch inspection would take place on Saturday morning – and that’s exactly what happened.

An inspection was confirmed for 9:30am and just nine minutes later, it was announced that the game would have to be rearranged with some areas of the pitch holding water.

Solihull is a hellish place to go at the best of times, now Pools face a daunting Tuesday night trip to the West Midlands.

But after experiencing Yeovil earlier in the season, this may feel fairly straightforward in comparison.

Even as I write this at Wetherby services having started the journey down to Solihull myself – The Moors deserve some credit for their handling of a no-win situation.

By keeping everyone up to date well in advance and making a clear effort for the game to go ahead before making a decision which took into account the distance fans would have to travel, most will have escaped with their Saturday largely intact.

Perhaps certain other National League sides could take note.