The Kent League should help it's club's more, says Larkin

Tuesday 16th February 2010

TUNBRIDGE WELLS manager Martin Larkin claims assessor Malcolm McLean piled pressure on promising young referee Mr Oliver Jackson to postpone tonight’s Bulmers Cider Kent League derby against Sevenoaks Town within 45 minutes before the scheduled kick-off, writes Stephen McCartney.

Tunbridge Wells chairman, Joe Croker, called in a local qualified official to inspect the Culverden Stadium pitch following today’s rainfall, although the rain stopped falling at around four o’clock this afternoon.

But the Culverden Stadium pitch passed an inspection at half-past-four, despite games elsewhere falling to waterlogged pitches.

Upon his arrival at the ground, the Gillingham based match referee, requested that the pitch markings were repainted as Mr Jackson claimed he couldn’t see them, a task undertaken by versatile home official, Darrell Cousins.

Mr Jackson then inspected the penalty box markings at the terrace end of the ground and despite Larkin fighting his corner, the match was postponed at seven o’clock.

This disturbed players - and supporters that came out to watch local football instead of staying in or going down to their local pub to watch Manchester United’s Champions League showdown against AC Milan.

Once the officials grabbed their money and got in one car to return home, it was decided to turn the floodlights back on and home officials, the pitch inspector (who insisted that there was nothing wrong with the playing surface or pitch markings) and myself inspected the pitch and the line markings were clearly visible.

Home officials may consider contacting the Kent League for compensation, and Larkin, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk, was clearly frustrated for the volunteers who work their socks off for no financial gain for the benefit of the football club.

“Frustrating for everyone who puts a lot of work in,” said the Wells boss.

“Joe (Croker) and Darrell (Cousins) were doing an incredible job. Joe’s here 12 hours a day working on it and Darrell is as well.”

Larkin pointed the finger of blame for tonight’s late postponement at the match assessor, Mr McLean, who insisted that “the pitch was unfit to play.”

“Darrell has gone out and painted the lines, they’ve (the officials) asked them to be painted,” explained Larkin.

“I can understand there’s issues with it and I don’t blame the referee totally because they’re under a lot of pressure.

“They’re assessed every single game. If the assessors not here tonight then he’d make a different decision because they’re under so much pressure to get things right.

“They’re checking things that don’t need to be checked because there’s an assessor here.

“You want them to come out and learn. Oliver Jackson is a fantastic referee. We’ve had him twice this year and he’s superb on the pitch, he really is. He’s under a lot of pressure. The assessors here and it’s just unfortunate really, it really is.”

For Sevenoaks Town boss, Simon Jones, he defended the officials’ decision, but admitted he has never seen the Culverden Stadium pitch looking so good for some time.

“Fixtures are piling up now,” Bromley based Jones told www.kentishfootball.co.uk. “Yes, frustrating. The referee’s made his decision. I’m not here to criticise or say anything about that. He’s in charge of the game.

“It’s the end of the matter for me. It’s a shame. We are all here and ready to play.

“A bit frustrating because it’s probably the best I’ve seen this pitch looking for a long time.

“He’s the match official, he’s in charge of the game. It’s his call. I’m not here to criticise or say anything. It’s his decision.”

Both managers, however, agreed with each other that this fixture should have been played on a Saturday afternoon to attract a bumper crowd.

“Every game we’ve played on a Saturday since I’ve been here we’ve had 160-170 (supporters) here“, said Larkin.

“One hundred and seventy times six quid is a lot of money. You put it on a Tuesday night, there’s Manchester United on television. It’s a case where we’d have 60-70 people here tonight, which for our biggest game of the year that’s some big revenue not coming in, in terms of bar money and obviously bar money.”

With only 30 Kent League games to play this season, only one club (Sporting Bengal United) have played two thirds of their fixtures and there’s only ten more Saturday’s of the season remaining.

More games should be played when the weather’s expected to be nicer and clubs should be at least half-way through their campaign’s by Christmas. That is clearly not the case this season!

Also, all midweek games should be postponed before everyone leaves work (at 5pm) and by 12 noon on a Saturday, to prevent everyone from travelling and more importantly spending their hard earned cash in what can be described as tough times financially.

“The Kent League have made a huge mistake there,” said Larkin “It’s not fair on clubs like this. They should be looking after teams. There’s not enough teams in the league as it is. They should be looking after people so we can make sure we can get the benefit of these kind of games.

“There’s a small band of dedicated people who work very hard behind the scenes here and they want to enjoy their Saturday afternoon’s as well, not a wet Tuesday night when there’s not many people here.”

Jones would also like to play their local rivals on a weekend date, to maximise the revenue streams that can only be created by playing local derbies.

“I agree!” said the Sevenoaks boss. “I really feel sorry for places. I think in a funny sort of way I knew the Tunbridge Wells chairman was saying he was a bit disappointed that this has come on a Tuesday night.

“It’s usually a big crowd on a Saturday, so you never know the league in their wisdom might now give us a Saturday fixture?

“Both clubs would prefer a Saturday fixture, it’s more of an event. You’ve got to have local derbies played on a Saturday! It’s more fun, it’s more entertaining, the crowd comes in and that’s what both clubs want.

“We want these sort of fixtures played on a Saturday when more people can come and visit and come through the turnstiles.”

The Tunbridge Wells chairman did decline our request for an interview on tonight’s events, but writing in his programme notes, he did call for a Saturday fixture against their nearest rivals.

“It’s no secret that club’s like ours cannot survive on just the revenue which is received from the gate and that we also depend on other sources including the bar and by holding events,” said Mr Croker.

“A reduced gate also means reduced bar takings so its disappointing for us to be playing our local derby on a Tuesday night and not a Saturday when spectator numbers would be much higher.”

For the record, both west Kent clubs had not distributed their team sheets to the officials before the postponement was confirmed.

But the match officials were:
Referee: Mr Oliver Jackson (Gillingham)
Assistants: Mr David Smart (Maidstone) & Mr Daniel Roberts (Aylesford)