‘I’m really, really disappointed’ - Crewe chairman offers sympathy to Portsmouth fans following postponement and match referee Martin Coy

He also admitted empathy towards referee Martin Coy, who made the last-ditch call to cancel the fixture an hour before kick-off.

However, after the announcement was made, the surface started to dry up as the skies cleared – with the decision viewed as hasty by Danny Cowley, David Artell and both sets of players.

Yet, Coy’s call wasn’t overturned, with the 1,500-plus Pompey fans who made the 424-mile round trip to Cheshire left fuming as news filtered through that they would return to the south coast without watching a game of football.

Crewe chairman Grant offered his sympathies to the travelling Fratton faithful who made the journey in difficult weather conditions.

But believes it was a tough decision to call the game off.

Speaking to Crewealex.net shortly after the ruling, he said: ‘At the end of the day it is about the supporters and we’ve got an awful lot of upset supporters.

‘Most of our supporters understand our pitch just like Danny the groundsman, who understands our pitch better than everyone else.

‘We have got an awful lot of upset supporters and I feel really sorry for the Portsmouth fans.

‘Some of them have come through Storm Eunice, one or two have come over from the Isle of Wight, they’ve got here and waited around in the rain for a decision.

‘If we could make a decision now then we’d play the game, but the referee made it an hour ago and we are where we are.

‘The managers wanted to play, the chief executives wanted to play, the players wanted to play, everyone wanted to play, but it’s all in hindsight.

‘If the same ref was on a different day and it was pouring with rain he would’ve handled it a bit more differently.

‘It is a really tough job they’ve got and my heart goes out to him in a way because he’s driving back and he’s probably thinking if he got it right.

‘I’m really, really disappointed for the fans, for the Portsmouth fans and everybody concerned, but it is what it is and we can’t reverse a referee’s decision.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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