Sky Bet League One side Southend United have taken drastic action after their League tie against Bolton at Roots Hall was postponed.
The Blues, sitting three points behind six-placed Rochdale who occupy the final play-off spot, were due to host third-placed Bolton in a hotly anticipated game in the third-tier of English football.
But at 10:47 am yesterday morning the Essex side were forced to postpone the tie after a pitch inspection by the match officials – even though there was just under over four hours left until kick-off.
A journalist for the Southend Echo, Chris Phillips, tweeted a few hours after the announcement that there were unconfirmed reports of the Blues dismissing Head Groundsman Ken Hare.
Chasing up reports that Blues' groundsman lost his job today after the game was called off. Nothing confirmed at the moment.
— Chris Phillips (@CJPhillips1982) January 21, 2017
But just a few minutes later the Journalist felt he had more concrete evidence to support his case.
Club not got back to me but had it confirmed by many others from elsewhere that Blues have indeed sacked the groundsman.
— Chris Phillips (@CJPhillips1982) January 21, 2017
The Blues stated the game was postponed due to a frozen pitch despite doing “everything possible to enable the game to go ahead by applying covers and heaters to vulnerable areas overnight”
Southend Twitter users voiced their confusion following Phillips’ discovery with many questioning the Club’s decision, especially as they were one of four games in the Football League to have become victim to the weather.
seems a bit harsh considering lots of other games in the area were called off also
— BROD (@BrodyStopher16) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/kevski74/status/822906135120379906
However one user saw the humourous side, citing it will be a busy day for the local job centres.
Must be a busy day at job centre Monday as Dagenham, orient, Crawley groundsman are to be sacked as well! All SE England games called off
— stuart morris (@stuartmorris1) January 21, 2017
