The Supporters Trust are dismayed by the process employed by Preston North End Football Club in postponing the boxing day fixture with Barnsley FC. It was clear that there were doubts over the fixture from as early as the 24th December, when Preston North End announced that there would be a pitch inspection at 10am on Boxing day, prior to the kick off following several days of severe weather and freezing temperatures.

At 10.00am on Boxing Day, the Preston website announced that the 10am pitch inspection had been rescheduled for 11am (approximately the time that many supporters and coaches were planning to leave for the journey to Deepdale). It was then announced that Deepdale had passed the pitch inspection and that the game was on with the Preston Website indicating that the playing surface was ok underneath the covers.

This was then superseded over 30 minutes later, when Preston North End Football Club and the safety committee at Preston deemed that the surrounding vicinity of the ground was unsafe for supporters and that the game was therefore postponed at late notice, the fact that the website indicated that the playing surface was ok it can be assumed that the area surrounding the ground was always going to be a problem, therefore action should have been taken much earlier to either clear the areas of concern or accept that nothing could be done and postpone the game much sooner.

In our opinion the decision to postpone the game for safety reasons outside the ground could have been made on Christmas Eve not three hours before the scheduled kick off time.  Oldham Athletic had the foresight to call their game off on Christmas Eve for exactly the same reasons.

It seems incredulous and irresponsible that this decision could not have been made earlier, before Barnsley Supporters had set off, saving them a potentially hazardous journey across the pennines to Deepdale, especially considering the advice from the police, emergency services and the Met Office that driving conditions throughout the country were poor and motorist should avoid all unnecessary journeys.

We are also concerned that the relevant information about the game being postponed was apparently not given out promptly by the relevent media outlets until several hours after the postponement, this may have prevented some Barnsley Supporters from travelling all the way to Preston for the game.

The Trust would urge all football clubs to give more consideration to away supporters when making decisions whether to postpone fixtures, and if a postponement is required, to make the decision as early as possible. We have noted that this season, there has been several incidents where fixtures have been postponed at late notice due to severe weather, often when visiting supporters have already travelled a substantial distance.