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No rain check for Annan despite call-off

Chris Jardine | 09:48 UK time, Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Hi there, I'm Chris Jardine, captain of Annan Athletic.

I hope, throughout the season, I can give you a good insight into life at the newest Scottish League club and maybe even a few laughs along the way.

I had been using My Sport/606 to post my offerings but now I've been upgraded to blog status...

matchoff438.jpgI texted the chairman first thing on Saturday morning to find out the chances of our Scottish Cup game going ahead at the weekend.

I must admit to not being surprised at his quick reply saying simply, "pitch soft".

I was surprised at the next one, however, "no inspection needed, game is on".

We had been training in horrendous conditions on Thursday night and the general thoughts of the players were that the game would struggle to go ahead as the pitch was badly waterlogged at that point.

Sure, the weather improved on Friday, but the forecast for Saturday was heavy rain and strong winds from 6am. As it turned out the rain didn't actually start until 9am.

So we only had six hours rain before the three o'clock kick off!

Gone are the days when the club could make an early decision to avoid our opponents travelling down to .

So it wasn't until half-past one that the match referee told us all the inevitable.

Although I was disappointed, in all honesty I didn't fancy playing in those conditions and was looking forward to a wee afternoon in the social club watching the various live games with a few beers.

I couldn't believe it when the manager said we were training!

Degsy (Derek Townsley) took the training (running) as Harry Cairney went to watch Dalbeattie Star against Selkirk in a game that had surprisingly survived the weather.

So Degsy has a quick word saying something along the lines of, "I know the conditions are bad but we need to get something out of today and some of us need to work on our fitness more than others".

Now, the big man has obviously looked after himself through the years.

But he's definitely no spring chicken anymore, and I assumed he was including himself in that.

How stupid I was!

While we were running into gale force winds and hale stones, Degsy was standing with his hands tucked in to his waterproof jacket screaming at us, "make sure you hit the line, you're only cheating yourself!"

Anyway, we worked hard for half an hour and then attempted to play a game, which my side lost about 8-0.

I lost count due mainly to the fact I was shouting at Dougie Calder and Adam Kassim - who were at fault for four goals each!

We will try again on Saturday and a trip to Elgin awaits the winner on 29 November.

I sincerely hope and believe we can make it through - even though it will mess up my birthday plans.

I turn 30 on 26 November and had planned a wee get together for family and friends on the night of the third round.

Oh well, if we do make it through against on Saturday, I suppose I will just have to make do with my wee trip to Amsterdam with the boys the previous weekend!

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