Sevco officials squeal for Cowdenbeath postponement
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Sevco officials have been accused of forcing the postponement of tonight’s Scottish Cup tie at Central Park, Cowdenbeath.
The Fife club spent all week preparing for tonight’s clash in front of the Premier Sports cameras with covers laid on the pitch while players took a half day off work ahead of the match.
All seemed to be going to plan until officials from the Ibrox club turned up at 4pm, an hour later a local referee had been called in and postponed the match.
Cowdenbeath v Rangers OFF due to frozen pitch.
We understand a local referee ruled the pitch unplayable due to the far corner flag being frozen.
Cowdenbeath officials are furious and say the pitch is playable. pic.twitter.com/FAYE7mtGtu
— Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) January 18, 2019
“We were confident that the pitch was good,” Cowdenbeath director Tom Ewing told BBC Scotland. “Some of the Rangers staff arrived and the next thing there were discussions with the SFA and they wanted to send the referee along.
“It’s their game and we’ve got to abide by that. It was a local referee that was called out and in our view it was only a precaution.
“We played in the Betfred Cup a couple of games here after a long, dry summer and I would absolutely say the pitch was harder then that it is now.”
The match has now been rescheduled for Wednesday January 30 meaning that the home players will need to request another half day off work with the first team squad including bus drivers, call centre operators and security guards.
Steven Gerrard’s side can now use Sunday’s glamour friendly at home to HJK Helsinki to shake off the effects of the winter break ahead of Wednesday’s trip to face Kilmarnock in the SPFL.