Altrincham FC’s much-postponed FA Trophy 1st Round tie with Leamington today is ON – at the eighth time of asking.
Despite the overnight frost, valiant efforts at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium have ensured that the game passed a morning inspection and will finally go ahead today at 3pm.
The draw, made in November, initially gave the Robins a home tie, which was postponed on December 12th, due to a waterlogged pitch at the J Davidson Stadium.
Three days later the teams drew 1-1 and since then the replay at Leamington’s Phillips 66 Community Stadium has been postponed five times between December 22nd and January 14th.
Two of those postponements have come within an hour of kick off and after the team and supporters had already arrived at the ground.
Altrincham’s Press & Media Officer, Brian Flynn, was interviewed about the continuing saga on Radio 5 live yesterday.
He said: “You have to have some sympathy for Leamington for the first postponement as the pitch was perfectly playable at 3pm when the Altrincham team set off, but exceptionally heavy rain between 4.00 and 6.30pm meant that the pitch was waterlogged and the game was called off with less than an hour to kick off.
“The second time that we travelled was more of an issue, in that Leamington felt that the pitch was playable, but when the referee arrived, he deemed that parts of it were unplayable & dangerous & quite rightly called it off again.”
The winners of the tie face a trip to the south coast to take on Bognor Regis Town in the 2nd Round on Tuesday evening, which would be a 500-mile round trip in midweek for Altrincham should they overcome their Warwickshire opponents.
Help required at the ground today to remove frost covers ahead of pitch inspection. Assembling at 9am. #brakes pic.twitter.com/hWe0VuTzJU
— Leamington FC (@LeamingtonFC) January 16, 2016
Meanwhile, Altrincham have made an exciting breakthrough in their quest for new recruits after completing a loan deal for flying Burnley winger Josh Ginnelly.
The 18-year old right-sided midfielder is joining the Robins on an initial one-month agreement and arrives with impressive credentials after taking the eye at Shrewsbury and joining Burnley for an undisclosed six-figure fee last August.
It is a timely development for manager Lee Sinnott, with the need for reinforcements becoming all the more acute after Shaun Densmore was booked in for an operation on his knee and forced to accept his season is over.
Watch Ginnelly in action below:
