GAME OFF!
episodePreviously titled “**** OFF!” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
Transcript
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What caused the postponement of the Pompey vs Ipswich game?
The latest Pompey news updates every day from the Pompey Sound News Desk. The following somewhat terse announcement was posted on the official Portsmouth FC website at approximately midday. Pompey's scheduled championship fixture against Ipswich at Fratton Park this evening has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. This is after persistent overnight rain, continuing into the morning and forecast to last until close to kick-off, has fallen on already saturated ground. A new date for the fixture will be announced in due course. Conspiracy theorists lost no time in speculating who made the decision, and whether Pompey influenced it with a view to postponing the fixture until they had a stronger squad.
Ipswich fans were absolutely apoplectic. Tractor boy DJ Simon Bizzle screamed on X. Whereas at Myth, ITFC took time out from herding his uncle's heifers to tweet... How pathetic.
How did Ipswich fans react to the game's postponement?
That's twice fans have paid for travel and accommodation, etc. for the game to be called off. Pompey should be reimbursing all fans who've already paid for commitments or forfeiting the game. Simple as. Move him along. Get him off me foot. Yeah, there's quite a few Ipswich supporters who feel like those too. You can't please some people, can you? The game was called off so that they wouldn't travel. If they're driving or on a train, they would need to be setting off sometime early afternoon.
What are the implications of the postponement for Pompey and Ipswich?
So by making the announcement before midday... Pompey were saving them the same hassle that they had the last time round when the referee called the game off with plenty of Ipswich fans already halfway to Portsmouth. And the club, I suspect, influenced the speeding up of the process that led to the game being announced as postponed with the Ipswich fans in mind, looking after the fans of the opposing club. And what sort of thanks did Pompey get for that? Tin pot club! Well, there's not a lot you can do about the downpours that we've had. Anybody who was out on the roads today will have seen so much standing water and possibly had to... I mean, we went for a drive the day before the heavens opened and at one point we were going through nearly a foot of water.
albeit in a dip in a country lane but the standing water is immense in quantity and of course the pitch is waterlogged now the Ipswich chairman to be fair to him Ashton his name is not that Ashton the other another Ashton used to be a player actually and now a football executive run a number of football clubs and doing a good job at Ipswich and sounds like a very reasonable bloke gets very involved in the community at ipswich and he got up on his hind legs at a recent meeting uh no an event a dinner i think and he was talking about the fact that there's a lot of money in football and of course there's a lot of money in ipswich but what he was saying is that some of that money needs to be spent not on players and players salaries but just on improving the general conditions in the game
If clubs are having to or believe that they have to spend all their money on buying expensive imports, players that is, and paying them handsomely, if they think that that is their key priority, number one, two, three and four and not much else matters, then you will get games being called off.
How does the weather affect football match scheduling?
Because the pitch, and I'm not saying that this is the case at Fratton Park, because the pitch doesn't have sufficient drainage to deal with an immense quantity of water. We looked at the weather forecast for Pompey for the day in question, and it was 100% heavy rain through until early evening. when the percentage likelihood of heavy rain dropped to something like 95%. So it was wet, there was no doubt surface water, and it was only going to get wetter. The key to Pompey's drainage, which used to be pretty good, and I suspect still is, but there are limits to anything, was the camber of the pitch. Anybody who's got down to eye level on the side of the Pompey... playing area and looking across we'll see what an enormous camber there is on the pitch which is probably the first port of call when it comes to pitch drainage give it a camber so that the water runs to where the assistant referees are going to get booties so uh that's a shame that Ipswich can't recognize that Pompey went out of their way to be supportive of them and to help them um but we all like a little moan don't we there were plenty of Pompey
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What caused the postponement of the Pompey vs Ipswich game?
0:02–1:17
2
How did Ipswich fans react to the game's postponement?
1:17–1:57
3
What are the implications of the postponement for Pompey and Ipswich?
1:57–4:10
4
How does the weather affect football match scheduling?
4:10–5:55
5
What are the financial responsibilities of clubs during postponements?
5:55–7:29
6
How do player transfers impact match availability?
7:29–8:57
7
What are the fans' sentiments about the game being called off?
8:57–11:54