Dundee United v Hearts match in doubt due to Storm Chandra
SPFL Premiership fixture is the Saturday night fixture at Tannadice
Dundee United staff are working frantically in an effort to ensure Saturday’s game against Hearts goes ahead at Tannadice Park. United’s pitch is under heavy weather as Storm Chandra impacts the United Kingdom and there is no guarantee it will survive to host this weekend’s Scottish Premiership fixture.
Both sets of players are preparing as normal, although training facilities are also likely to be hit by the weather this week. The Tannadice playing surface is causing concern after it was waterlogged at the weekend, causing the postponement of United’s home match against St Mirren. The previous weekend, it passed a pre-match inspection as United faced Ayr United in the Scottish Cup.
Hearts will take a large travelling support to Tayside as they look to continue challenging for the Premiership title. They are currently top of the league and four points clear of second-placed Rangers. However, a final decision on whether Tannadice is playable or not will likely come much later in the week.
“The ground staff and everybody at Tannadice is working day and night to try and make sure the game goes ahead against Hearts. We just hope and pray it does,” said the Dundee United manager, Jim Goodwin. “We are in the lap of the Gods with the weather the way it is. The forecast doesn’t look too great so we will need to wait and see what happens. We hope the game goes on because we can’t afford for another one to be cancelled. You don’t want a backlog of games to catch-up on.
“We ended up training [after St Mirren was postponed]. We reported to St Andrews for 12 and we managed to get a game in between the squads, so it was a good day. The boys worked hard and it was really worthwhile. The boys were disappointed the game was off but what can we do? The conditions were far from ideal but I was happy to get a good session in and the game, knowing the boys trained well.”
Two weather warnings covering parts of Scotland were issued on Monday as forecasters predicted dangerous conditions in parts of Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire and Dumfries and Galloway/ The Met Office also announced that the latest storm would be named Chandra and is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain and snow across much of the UK.
It will last throughout Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday. Although the worst of the storm is expected to hit the south west of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, there was already travel disruption across parts of Scotland on Tuesday morning. Several trains, ferries and flights were suspended.
Scottish Professional Football League officials will keep a close eye on the forecast as Dundee United’s groundstaff continue to monitor their pitch and keep it free from water as much as possible.