‘Waste of time’ – Hartlepool United fans rage at Dagenham & Redbridge postponement an hour before kick-off despite successful inspection on Friday

Following a ‘successful’ Friday lunchtime pitch inspection, Pools travelled down to Dagenham & Redbridge confident that they would be playing a game of football on Saturday afternoon.

But upon arriving at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Saturday, it became immediately apparent that the pitch was frozen and unsafe and the game was postponed just over an hour before the scheduled 3pm kick-off time.

To rub more salt into Pools’ wounds, they had offered to play the match up at Victoria Park in an attempt to fulfil the fixture this weekend.

Instead they face yet another long midweek away trip as they await confirmation of a new date.

Manager Dave Challinor wasn’t happy after the match and neither were the Pools’ fans as they took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

Here’s what they had to say...

@danielhufc: “If it was playable [on Friday] Daggers should’ve done more to make sure it still was [on Saturday], but the ref should’ve called it off [on Friday].”

@danpatton__: “Sounds like it was mainly the referees judgement that was wrong, which is hardly surprising given their displays during games. Oh, and Dagenham are incredibly tinpot.”

@JackAshmann: “Very frustrating. Waste of the club's money. I’m seeing £5k cost rumouring about on the internet. Could have easily been avoided. Should have played at The Vic. Also don’t promise things you can’t deliver like they did on Thursday.”

@aynzw: “Definitely the official's fault, hopefully VNL will reimburse Pools for the inconvenience. On a wider note they need to start fining clubs who don't seem to put the effort into getting a game on. I suspect there are a few clubs in the league not doing enough to ready their pitch.”

@mjrobson75: "@Dag_RedFC seriously, look into talking to our (Hartlepool) groundsman as a consultant or something. Everyone always says Hartlepool’s the coldest ground ever blah blah etc, but guess who gets their games on? You should be giving us the points for this.”

@PaulMcSweenie: “@TheVanaramaNL someone from this "organisation" needs to be held accountable for allowing Pools to travel and be out of pocket. Both managers have said it's frozen so why has it been allowed to pass? Despite best efforts from Dag and Red?”

@Danthom03: “Offered a fixture reverse because it was going to be -0 Friday night. Daggers say ‘no we will be fine’. Daggers pass a pointless pitch inspection on the wrong day. Match postponed due to -0 temperature on Friday night. Why the facade? Embarrassing.”

@JordRich97: “A complete waste of time and resources. Even more frustrating knowing that Pools had offered to reverse the fixture at the beginning of the week and it had passed a precautionary pitch inspection [on Friday].”

@IanLaurence10: “I'd like a statement from the NL to be honest. The ref may have been trying to be positive and giving the game every opportunity but Pools’ squad have wasted 24 hours and £5k or whatever the cost has been. Is the ref so thick to think the game had a chance?”

@Pooliebob: “Luke Molyneux – will his suspension ever end?”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Hartlepool United coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

We’ve launched a new transfer window special offer for readers to get 20% off our subscription package.

Use the promo code TRANSFER20 to sign up here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor