Maidstone United 0A0 Sittingbourne - The main problem was the breaker went, says Bourne chairman

MAIDSTONE UNITED  0A0  SITTINGBOURNE
(Match abandoned after 6 minutes – floodlight failure)
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 30^th August 2011
Mike Green reports from Bourne Park

The eagerly awaited tenants-versus- landlords Ryman League Division One South derby between Maidstone United and Sittingbourne  was abandoned after just six minutes of playing time after a second floodlight failure at Bourne Park proved terminal.

Referee Mr Hatzidakis consulted with Stones boss Jay Saunders and Brickies boss Richard Brady and after the manager’s spoke to the respective teams, it was decided that no further play would be possible.

The problem was with the floodlights opposite to the main stand at Bourne Park – they first went out after three minutes of playing time and following a 12 minute delay, there was a loud cheer when the lights came back on.  Sadly, they lasted a further two and a half minutes before the same lights failed.

Both camps were interviewed afterwards, and there was a sense of disappointment and frustration at what happened.

Ian Tucker, the head of communications at Maidstone United, said: “With it being the only match being played in the county tonight we had a number of neutrals in the ground to watch the game.  Some of them have come a long way as have some of our supporters and all that they got was just under six minutes of football. 

“I don’t think anyone could have done any better especially as there’s electricity involved.  You could see from the reaction of the Sittingbourne people here tonight that they're obviously disappointed and very frustrated at what happened, but that said you would hope that before the next midweek game is played here at Bourne Park - which is scheduled to be our game against Walton & Hersham in a fortnights time - the lights are checked and double checked to make sure that they working properly. 

“Knowing the people here as we do they will do, they will check, double check and then triple check things to make sure that everything is OK. 

“After all the maintenance work they did during the summer they really must be gutted that this has happened as they must have hoped that everything was going to be OK for the new season. 

“The rearranged date will be announced as soon as possible, and every ticket that was issued tonight has a number on it and so we know exactly what tickets were issued.  So if people come to the rearranged game with that ticket we will honour it, but if people can’t make it next time, we'd ask them to contact the club office and we'll help them out.”

Sittingbourne chairman, Andy Spice, said: “It’s been a big disappointment for everyone here tonight!  The problem is that the lights we put up during the summer are great when they're all working.  But to be fair to the electricians that fitted them for us said that we would need to fit new breakers on the old side, and it is planned to get that done but obviously it’s not soon enough, and they will now have to be replaced immediately.  The problem was that the main breaker went and now must be replaced. 

“The lights are unusable now until we get a new breaker put in, which could have been done tonight but it would have taken at least a couple of hours to put it right. 

“We've had a good start to the season and when the lights were on last week with all the new ones in, it looked fantastic which just adds to the disappointment tonight as the game was just beginning to warm up and could have been a really good game. 

“Hopefully the league will take a sympathetic view as to what has happened tonight as after all it is just one of those things.  After all you can’t help bad luck - we've done everything we can to get the lights back on, and to be fair when they were on they did look good.  It’s just such a shame that one of the breakers wasn’t up to it.  Definitely the right decision to call the game off when the referee did.  

Sittingbourne manager, Richard Brady said: “There's not really a lot I can say about that is there?  The floodlights have gone and it was decided that they weren’t coming back so - I'm just glad that there was no injuries or anything in the little time that we did play. 

“They went off twice, and so we'll just prepare now for Saturday's game in the FA Cup.  I've more concerns with the teams other than the lights – it’s not really my jurisdiction is it?  From what I've been told, we've put the new floodlights in, but I didn’t go into too much detail as it’s not my remit!  

Maidstone United manager, Jay Saunders, said: “We arrived tonight and I thought the pitch looked 100 times better than the first game of the season and obviously after the great win on Saturday we were looking forward to the game.  Don’t know what to say about tonight as I really am gutted but we've got to now make sure that we're right for Saturday. 

“It was the right decision to call the game off tonight as if the lights had gone again and the players hadn't warmed up properly we definitely would have been looking at pulled or strained muscles and we obviously don’t want that this early in the season. “




Maidstone United: Charlie Mitten, Tommy Osborne, Tom Mills, Nick Reeves, Graeme Andrews, Danny Lye, Ellis Green, Sam Bewick, Shaun Welford, Jimmy Humphris, Alex Flisher.
Subs: Baff Addae, Alex Waugh, Sean Johnson, Karl Knight, Peter Gill.

Sittingbourne: Tim Roberts, Ryan Cooper, Dan Polfrey, Jamie Coyle, Jerry Nnamani, Sam Groombridge, Jack Hooper, Colin Richmond, Ryan Golding, Hicham Akhazzan, Billy Manners.
Subs: Sam Goldsmith, Carl Harrold, Josh West, Craig White, Jai Nuttall.

Attendance: 447
Referee: Mr Constantine Hatzidakis (Gravesend)
Assistants: Mr Aji Ajibola (Erith) & Mr M Scott