'We should be applauded by Portsmouth' - Accrington owner defends League One postponement 24 hours before kick-off

General view of The Crown Ground, home of Accrington Stanley. Picture: Dave Howarth

The League One fixture was called off on Friday afternoon after a pitch inspection at the Wham Stadium.

Following recent snowfall, along with sub-zero conditions in Lancashire, referee Bobby Madley deemed the surface unplayable and it wasn’t going to improve.

As a consequence, it was the Blues’ third successive game to be cancelled after clashes with Swindon and Bristol Rovers were scrapped because five players tested positive for coronavirus.

The decision to postpone to Stanley match left some Pompey supporters frustrated as it’ll mean their side will have at least a 23-day gap between games.

But Holt has defended Accy’s decision to call off the encounter 24 hours before kick-off.

He insisted that he didn’t want Pompey to make a needless 550-mile round trip on New Year’s Day for the game to still be scrapped.

And for that reason, Holt believes his club deserve praise.

Holt wrote on Twitter: ‘We have been talking to @EFL all week about the threat. We didn’t want @Pompey to spend New Year’s Day travelling unless we had reasonable confidence the game was on.

‘We acted properly again. The ref and refs body made any decisions. It makes no difference to me whether the game was on or off. I only have 4 miles to travel.

‘We told the away team to put back their departure time until the ref made his decision. We should be applauded by @Pompey and @EFL for acting responsibly.

‘Tinpot club, fair enough. Proper run club by good people.’

A new date for the match has yet to be arranged.

Holt has previously insisted that the League One season should be extended by a minimum of two weeks to ensure that all fixtures can be fulfilled.

The majority of teams in the third tier are facing a backlog due to the swathes of games that have been postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

There have been calls for a two week ‘circuit-break’ but the EFL have no plans to implement one.

Instead, it’s given clubs 11 strict rules that they must follow to stop the spread of Covid-19.