FA Cup third-round tie postponed just hours before kick-off due to frozen pitch
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Derby County's FA Cup tie with Leyton Orient has been postponed due to the effects of cold weather on the Gaugham Group Stadium in Leyton. The pitch surface was deemed unplayable by referees on Saturday afternoon, meaning the match, which was meant to begin at 18:00 GMT will now be played at a later date.
Orient released a statement just hours before kick-off on Saturday. It read: 'The match has been rearranged for Tuesday 14th January and will kick-off at 7.45pm GMT. Tickets will be valid for the rearranged date. 'The O’s Vertu Trophy match against Stevenage has been put back by seven days and will now take place on Tuesday 21st January (KO 7pm GMT).
'The playing surface in E10 had been covered since Thursday and was playable up until Saturday morning, following colder-than-forecast overnight temperatures which caused areas of the south side of the pitch to freeze. . 'Referee Benjamin Speedie conducted a pitch inspection at midday. He said: “Based on yesterday, the pitch was playable. Unfortunately however, overnight the weather was colder than expected and has frozen one of the goalmouth areas in particular. Come kick-off, temperatures were going to go back down to around -1, so the game has had to be called off due to player safety.”.
Leyton Orient CEO Mark Devlin said: 'We are extremely disappointed that today’s cup match cannot take place. Our grounds staff had worked extremely hard this week to put provisions in place to deal with the cold temperatures and we were confident yesterday evening of the match going ahead.
