Mulraney: QoS call off cost us a lot of money

Graeme Lafferty • Published 12 Dec 2012 09:30

Alloa chairman Mike Mulraney has revealed that Saturday's postponement of their clash with Queen of the South has cost the club thousands.

Mulraney was left confused and angry by the call off that has left the club counting the cost at the loss of a lot of revenue in terms of gate receipts and corporate hospitality. Despite the pitch being perfectly playable, rookie referee Brian xxxxxx made the decision to call off the game on the grounds of player safety even although both clubs agreed the pitch was good.

Mulraney told Advertiser Sport, "In my opinion the referee, who clearly had no experience with 3G surfaces, got the decision badly wrong but that's football and there is nothing we can do about it.

"The pitch was close to perfect and both clubs agreed that. It's beyond frustrating for us because I don't think the officials realise how badly they got the decision wrong because we were playing a match on it by 2pm.

"At the end of the day an inexperienced referee has made a mistake, it's happened and there is not a lot we can do about it. It's hugely frustrating that the referee's mistake has cost us an enormous loss of money that could be in the region £7.5k to £10k to the club.

"He wasn't sure what he was looking for and made a bad mistake and unfortunately it is us who are left to pay for it."

Alloa captain Darren Young echoed the views of his chairman and feels that the club played on a lot worse pitches.

Young said, "The referee has taken the decision in terms of the safety and there is nothing we can do about that.

"To be honest I have played on a lot worse pitches than that in my career but its the referee's choice at the end of the day."

Meanwhile, Alloa boss Paul Hartley was a lot more sympathetic towards the referee's position and despite his frustration's at the postponement of such a massive game, he is just content that he still managed to put his players through their paces ahead of the re-arranged fixture.

Hartley said, "Frustrating with the call off because we were looking forward to the game but there is not much we can do.

"It's the referee's call, we thought the game could've gone ahead but we have to look at from the referee's perspective.

"He was worried about the safety of the players so it's one of those things and at least we managed to get a training session in."

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