Livingston boss launches defence of club - and fourth official - after call-off fiasco

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Livingston boss David Martindale has issued a defence of the club - and fourth official Scott Lambie - after the club’s league clash with Dundee United was postponed just 75 minutes before kick-off on Wednesday night.The Tony Macaroni Arena playing surface had passed a 3pm inspection from Lambie only for it to be called off around 6.30pm by referee Matthew McDermid.Martindale admits, though, there’s nothing the club or officials could have done other than push the initial inspection back a couple of hours.He said: “I don’t think there’s anything more we can do.

There’s talk about indoor domes and heating but when you’ve got three nights of consecutive temperatures of -5 and colder it’s going to be difficult to get the pitch playable.“Other than undersoil heating, I don’t think there’s anything more we can do - and we can’t get undersoil heating because of the sub-structure.“I don’t think the fourth official is at fault.

He’s come and said the park was on at three o’clock and by 6.30 pm there’s been a detrimental effect on the park.“Livingston is quite high but the club’s caught in a valley and it’s colder where we’re situated than other stadiums.“Ideally, we’d have a grass park and undersoil heating but we’ve not and we just need to get on with it.”He added: “In hindsight, we should all have agreed to a later pitch inspection.

We should have all agreed on a 5pm pitch inspection. We agreed to Dundee United’s request for a 3pm inspection and the SFA are only going off that being the clubs’ choice.“I understand Dundee United didn’t want to be on a bus travelling then the game called off but really that’s what happened anyway.“I knew by 6.30 the park was going to get worse but you can’t put it off on the assumption that it