Elgin face SPFL probe after match called off due to gravel on pitch

ELGIN City could face an SPFL investigation after gravel on their Borough Briggs pitch led to Saturday’s League 2 match against Cowdenbeath being postponed.

Referee Gavin Ross called the game off an hour before kick off, after Cowdenbeath raised concerns over player safety on an area of the pitch covered in stones.

City chairman Graham Tatters insisted the park was in the same condition when it was declared playable for home matches already played this season.

But he promised action will be taken by the club to ensure next Saturday’s home game against Stirling Albion is allowed to go ahead.

“We understand it is a major problem but there is nothing we can do about it,” he said.

“It is not a new problem. The last home game and the game before that, we knew it, the referees have mentioned it to us but they said ‘we are marking you down’.

“There’s just nothing we can do. We’ve had the fire brigade on it hosing it down, we’ve had one of the guys who does crop spraying, we’ve had about 15,000 litres of water on here and it just disappears.

“We followed exactly the same procedure this year as we followed every year; we prepared the goalmouths, brought turf in we then put 90 tonnes of sand and gravel on the pitch, we verti-drained it, everything was done in the normal manner but we’ve never had rain.”

Tatters insisted he had no complaint about the ref’s call to postpone.

“I’ve got no argument, it is what it is but I can’t change it. We need water and we need growth and we can’t get it.

“The only thing we can do for next week is get an industrial hoover in and try to lift it, see if we can do it with that. I can’t think of anything else.”

The timing of the postponement could hardly be worse for Elgin, who had made their best start to a league season for a long time.

They had won two and drawn one of their three games before Saturday and were confident of taking full points against Cowdenbeath.

A large crowd was expected at Borough Briggs, with many supporters arriving at the ground only to be turned away by the shock news.

There was anger among a group of Cowdenbeath fans who had made the journey from Fife only to learn of the postponement.

Cowdenbeath manager Gary Bollan criticised the surface and said the referee made the right decision.

“It’s massively disappointing. It’s unusual, when you come here the pitch is really good so I’m really surprised to come up today and see the condition it is in.

“The stones on it, it is a hazard for players because if you’ve got defenders defending and they’ve got to slide they are going to rip their leg off.

“When we saw it we pointed it out to the referee. We asked his opinion and he said he deemed it too dangerous for the safety of the players so that’s the decision he’s made and he’s cancelled the game.

“If he said the game was on we would have been happy enough to play because we have got a full squad up here today, there’s no reason for us to need the game off.

“But I think it’s the right decision. If it was water you wouldn’t play in the water and you certainly can’t play on stones. It’s worse than playing on an old ash pitch so when the safety of the players is a concern I think the referee is in no doubt to call it off.”