Swansea City boss Roberto Martinez is refusing to let the Histon cup debacle ruin his squads focus after Saturday’s clash was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
In a war of words between the Cambridgeshire club and the Liberty Stadium outfit, Histon Chairman Gareth Baldwin has made unsubstantiated and libellous claims against Swansea City officials, claiming that the championship club put undue pressure on referee Phil Crossley to halt the game. Speaking yesterday Swans physio Richie Evans rubbished Baldwins comments and was adamant that no officials from Swansea put any pressure on Crossley to call the game off.
Swansea now face the prospect of 3 games in a week but Martinez has commented on events that led to the postponement and in turn has heavily criticised Baldwin and the Impington based club’s professionalism as he told the SWEP, he said “ The only sour note for us is that the pitch inspection at Histon wasn’t held on Friday afternoon or at 6am on Saturday, because at least then our fans wouldn’t have had to travel for nothing.Whatever Histon want to say is down to them. If they want to disrespect other institutions through the press then I think they are in the wrong jobs.”
Rising above the comments made by officials from Histon , the Spaniard has very little time to mull over Saturday’s events , he added “ ‘We are not annoyed by what they’ve said.We’ve got too much on our plate at the moment, with a fantastic game at Burnley and a busy run of games in the league, to be annoyed about comments in the press.’The referee had a clear view of a frozen pitch.he had enough experience to know what was going to happen.
Three games in a week would test the resolve and depth of any squad but Martinez is calling for a good team effort ahead of a crucial week he added “It’s a completely different situation having a game on a Saturday with seven days either side and having three games in a week,.We will have to share the effort, but we still want to win all three games. We want to beat Histon because that will help the players get rid of some of the frustration they felt after losing to Havant & Waterlooville last season. Sometimes the best way to get over a knock like that is to come through another challenge on the pitch.”
Meanwhile Swansea City reserves take on Forest Green Rovers at the GenQuip Stadium tommorow night at 7.00pm.
