Exeter fans left out in the cold

FURIOUS football fans say they were left out in the cold after the Grecians' Saturday fixture was called off with just two hours' notice.

Several hundred Port Vale fans had made the 200-mile trip from Staffordshire only to discover the League Two clash with Exeter City had been postponed.

Referee Pat Miller called off the match at 1.15pm at Exeter's St James's Park stadium because parts of the pitch were deemed to be frozen, leading to safety concerns.

Exeter boss Paul Tisdale described the decision as over-cautious despite the persistent sub-zero temperatures, while Vale boss Dean Glover criticised the lateness of the call.

The decision left the Valiants' travelling support to make the four-hour journey back up the M5 from Devon without having seen a ball kicked.

Terry Burton, 41, from Bucknall, runs a minibus service called The Independent Travelling Valiants and took 11 fans to the game. Each of them lost the £18 they paid for their tickets for the bus, which set off at 7.20am on Saturday.

Mr Burton said: "From what I've been told from other fans there was nothing wrong with the pitch and only one stretch of it was affected.

"But they could have made the decision at 9am. I'm sure they could have found a local Football League standard referee to do that.

"I don't think football fans are considered in these situations."

Several other Port Vale fans, speaking on a Port Vale website forum, voiced their disgust at the late decision made. One called it "pathetic" while another wrote: "It is a joke when everybody knows that the ground temperature won't be above freezing all day, so any bits that don't get sun will stay frozen all day. It's not rocket science."

Julian Tagg, Exeter City's sporting director, said: "It was an extremely difficult situation. Most of our staff believed it to be playable.

"When the referee arrived he didn't indicate anything different. Then at 12.30pm to 12.45pm he began to worry about it. All of a sudden the game was off.

"The referee is in a very difficult situation. Opinion is opinion, but responsibility is responsibility and that's what he's got."

Mr Tagg added it had been unfortunate for all fans, whether home or away, and the organisation was looking at how to prevent things like this happening in the future.

Exeter Chiefs' game at Moseley was postponed after an inspection of the Billesley Common pitch at 9am on Saturday, but fortunately the decision was made before the rugby team and supporters' coaches were due to leave.

Neither match has yet been rearranged.

And the cold weather is set to continue into this week, creating more problems for residents.

According to the Met Office, today and tomorrow will see lows of -3C, and even as the weather warms in mid-week, the average day-time temperature will still be around 2C.

A record number of car breakdowns are expected today as many people return to work after leaving their cars cold on the driveway over the festive period.

The Environmental Transport Association said bitter weather over the Christmas break would leave cars prone to failure, which could cause problems as many drivers went without breakdown cover in a bid to save cash in the economic downturn.

But the cold weather is not bad news for everybody, as a crisp winter is advantageous to farmers who struggled throughout a wet 2008.

Ian Johnson, a spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said: "How farmers are faring will vary according to the sort of farming they do and whether they have got enough feed and bedding.

"The dry and crisp weather is something most will welcome as it will help kill of things like pests. A cold dry period is not a bad thing for farmers providing they have been able to catch up with everything they had to do after the wet weather. A mild wet winter would have been very bad. At least this way they can work their land."