Former Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper Barry Murphy believes the 11th hour nature of the decision to postpone the Hoops' league game against Cork City on Sunday was just "not good enough".
Amid inclement weather in Dublin from early morning, doubts had increasingly grown about whether the game at Tallaght Stadium would go ahead, with two pitch inspections conducted earlier in the day on a surface that had seen over 210 minutes of action across Thursday and Friday when Rovers and the Republic of Ireland women's team had played matches there against Molde and Turkey respectively.
However, further rainfall would follow and less than an hour before the planned 6pm kick-off, it was announced that the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division fixture would not go ahead.
"The pitch was passed playable in the first pitch inspection at 11:15am and with more rain forecast amid changeable weather conditions, it was agreed with both clubs that a second inspection would take place at 4pm," the FAI said in a statement that also apologised to supporters.
"The pitch was deemed playable at this juncture and unfortunately a torrential downpour occurred after the second pitch inspection which made the pitch unplayable."
Cork City's frustrations were evident in regard to the postponement decision coming "so close to kick-off" and cited the disruption to their travelling support.
The club added: "At all times, the club made clear our preference for the game to go ahead, up to and including being willing to delay kick-off to facilitate this, however this was, regrettably, in vain."
"It's just not good enough," he said.
"The roads around the stadium, some of them were nearly impassable and the surrounds of the stadium, there were puddles everywhere."
Even at the time of the first pitch inspection at 11.15am, Murphy said he was surprised that the game "was deemed on at that stage" and that a decision should have been made by 2pm that the pitch would not be able to sustain a match in expectation of further rain that did eventually arrive.
And citing the aforementioned Ireland fixture in the Women's Nations League as well as Rovers' Conference League match against Molde, he added that the pitch already looked "cut up and was leggy as it was".
"We were standing in the gantry before it and you could see puddles all over the pitch and they came back at four o'clock and did another pitch inspection," Murphy continued.
"There was literally one puddle where on the dugout side of the pitch that if the ball holds up there, you've got danger of a collision. It was dangerous for players."
Murphy outlined the impact that the late nature of the postponement would have on those connected to the home and away sides.
"There's massive expense for the fans and the team coming up to Dublin that they just won't recoup from that and the same for Shamrock Rovers," he said.
"You've got to put stewards, you've got to put policing, you've got vendors spending thousands of money preparing food and it's just not good enough."
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