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Agius ‘smells a rat’
over postponement
Ketton Reserves (back l-r), Sooty Pearce, Shaun Topping, William Bird, Tim Bradley, Steve Maguire, Gary Earl, Andre Petrossian. (front l-r), Ian Marsh, Tom Shepherd, Kevin Fry, Andy Gray, Aaron Young.
FURIOUS Eye Sports manager Gino Agius has demanded Peterborough League chiefs investigate a controversial Saturday postponement.
The title hopefuls fixture at Ramsey Town was called off on the morning of the game at the insistence of the home team’s landlords, Ramsey Cricket Club, due to concerns over the condition of the pitch.
But Agius is not prepared to accept that explanation and feels other reasons were behind the cancellation.
Agius said: “I smell a rat and I don’t believe that match was called off due to the pitch.
“All week Ramsey had been asking for the kick-off to be put back from 2pm to 3pm but we couldn’t agree to it due to a pre-arranged night out.
“Then all of a sudden the game is called off at 10.45am on Saturday. I got straight onto the league who asked the referee to go over and take a look.
“I spoke to him while he was at the ground and he told me in his professional opinion the pitch was playable. My number two Al Lenihan then dropped in to Ramsey at 1pm on his way to watch another game and said there was no water at all on the pitch.
“The league have asked me to make my feelings known in writing and I will definitely be doing so because I am disgusted. We are on a roll and we are not happy about having a fixture postponed with so many question marks.”
Ramsey manager Paul Taylor has reacted with anger to Agius’ claims and insists there is no ‘hidden agenda’. He said: “Our home game the previous Saturday against Moulton Harrox left the pitch cut up and we had a lot of rain on Friday.
“It is no different to a local council calling off a game on one of their pitches. The cricket club are our landlords and the last thing we can afford to do is upset them.
“We have a facility that is used all year-round and we cannot risk ruining it for 90 minutes of football. “It is the first home match we have had postponed all season.”
Ramsey face a fixture backlog. They have 21 league matches remaining with just 13 more Saturdays in the season.
n GARY Gibbs grabbed five goals during a Saturday afternoon scoring feast - only to be told he should have managed double.
The Kings Cliffe hitman did the majority of the damage as they breezed past basement boys Alconbury 7-1.
Boss-for-the-day Gianni Salerno said: “Gary took his goals very well but he could have had 10.
“He had three others ruled out for offside and we had five in total disallowed as a team.”
James Picillo and Andrew Bradley joined Gibbs on the scoreline while Alconbury, who are still searching for a new manager, found the net through George Pearson who later suffered a broken hand.
General manager and temporary boss Mick Tarft said: “We’ve had a fair bit of interest from people who might be keen to take it on in the summer, but we need something a lot more immediate.”
n PETERBOROUGH Sports chief Chris Bartlett heaped praise on the player who almost denied his side a Saturday victory.
Teenage Oundle goalkeeper Aaron Kier pulled off a succession of five saves before Sports came from behind to prevail 2-1 in a Premier Division clash.
Gerard Evans levelled before Giuliano Staffieri climbed off the bench to hit the winner.
“Aaron was outstanding in goal for Oundle,” said Bartlett. “We had to be patient for the goals but it was more clear-cut than the scoreline suggests.”
Oundle had hit the front through Dean Clarke who was denied further goals by the woodwork and Sports keeper Marcin Lubniewski.
Boss Barry Gregory said: “If Dean could have put all those chances away it would have been a different game.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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