Dons fans’ anger after late call-off of Partick Thistle clash

Aberdeen fans have slated the decision to call off their league clash with Partick Thistle at Firhill less than four hours before kick-off.

The match, which was due to start at 7.45pm last night, was called off at 4pm because of a waterlogged pitch.

The majority of the 1,500 Dons fans intending to go to the match were already on the road to Glasgow.

Neil McDougall, chairman of the Northern Lights AFC fan club, said: “We were already at Cumbernauld.

“It means we will have to pay £700 for the hire of a bus to take us to a match that never took place.

“The decision to call it off was made far too late.”

Dons boss Derek McInnes expressed sympathy for fans upset by the postponement.

The Dons squad had travelled down to Glasgow on Thursday and stayed overnight.

McInnes said: “We are as frustrated as the fans.”

The Northern Lights fan club had 45 fans on board their coach and left the Granite City at 1pm to avoid getting caught up in the heavy traffic that is common in the Glasgow area on Friday evenings.
McDougall said: “We left at 2pm for a Friday night game at Hamilton and only just made it because of huge queues of traffic at Cumbernauld.

“We decided it was best to leave a little earlier this time because the match was actually in Glasgow.

“There were a lot of angry people on the bus when we were told the game was off.

“A lot us had to take time off work as well as pay for the bus.

“We were also up at Inverness on Monday night.

“It was bad enough that the SPFL expected us to travel hundreds of miles twice in five days to get to evening games.

“To then see the second game called off late in the day has left many of us rightly upset.

“Even more so because it’s not the first time we have seen a game called off at a very late stage.”

Referee Madden was asked to inspect the pitch at 3.30pm but no official announcements were made until half an hour later.

The clash with the Dons was the fourth match at Firhill to be called off this season because the pitch was unplayable.

Meetings with St Johnstone, Dundee United and Motherwell were also called off.

The SPFL are expected to confirm the new date for the postponed match at the start of next week.

The call-off denied the Dons the chance to draw level on points with Celtic at the top of the Premiership.