Parents of young footballers across South Lanarkshire kicked off after grass football pitch lets for Saturday were cancelled due to apparent "water-logged" parks - a whole 24 hours prior to games being played.
As rain battered the county last week, South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) made the decision on the Friday morning to cancel all games set to be played on their grass pitches over the weekend.
Yet, as young players awoke on Saturday morning, the torrential weather had cleared with the sun splitting the trees and many of the water-logged parks "drained and playable" according to frustrated football mums and dads.
One such park was the Priory Football Pitches, on Farm Road, Blantyre, that one dad-of-two young footballers inspected first thing on Saturday morning, describing the decision to call off games the day before as "hasty".
The dad, whose youngest son was due to play for Blantyre Soccer Academy at 10am on Saturday, was disheartened to learn that the pitch was in ideal playing condition.
He later took to social media to voice his disappointment and was backed by other parents who agreed the call was the wrong one to make.
The parent told Lanarkshire Live : "Priory Football Pitch should have been played on by scores of kids on Saturday had it not been for SLC who, on Friday morning, took the ridiculous decision to close all grass pitches in the area for the entire weekend.
"A decision that denied hundreds of kids in the area the chance to play a game of football because of the weather.
"Yet, as I suspected, the park could not have been in better condition. A perfect day for football but, once again, the council made the lazy decision to deny the children that opportunity.
"To cancel pitch lets 24 hours before a game is ridiculous. Inspections should have been carried out on Saturday morning, where council staff would have found that many of the pitches across the county were very much playable, drained and in great condition due to the rainfall.
"It seems its another cost-cutting, lazy and hasty decision by SLC."
Other parents claimed that Hamilton's Palace Grounds grass parks were also in ideal playing conditions on Saturday. Pitches that hundreds of children and adults alike would have booked to play on over the weekend.
Another parent said: "Just walked my dog down Palace Grounds, grass pitches were perfectly playable."
Whilst another complained: "It encourages coaches to book AstroTurf pitches and kids pick up lots of injuries they wouldn't get on grass.
"The referee should make the decision on the day like in our time!"
SLC said that despite the weather improving on Saturday, pitches were unable to be lined in the days leading up to the weekend due to the terrible conditions.
Head of facilities, waste and grounds, Kevin Carr, told us: “Following heavy rainfall for a large part of last week, we had to take the decision to postpone football matches taking place on our grass pitches at the weekend.
“Although weather conditions improved on Saturday, many of the pitches were still waterlogged and most of them were not able to be lined ahead of the weekend.
“We recognise that this may have disappointed those who were due to play on the parks, but we have to take into account the safety of those using the pitches as well as our own staff who carry out the lining work.
“When the pitches are so heavily waterlogged any damage done can mean it takes longer for them to recover, increasing the time they are unfit for use. To be absolutely clear, the decision had nothing to do with ‘cost-cutting’.”
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