PROMOTER Danny Ford issued an apology to Pirates’ fans after seeing two more shots at completing the SGB Championship play-off final wiped out at the weekend.

The Wimborne Road outfit were originally set to defend their 49-41 first leg lead over Leicester at Beaumont Park on Saturday, with wet weather intervening.

And with the meeting rescheduled to 5pm on Sunday, the clash was once again called off for a third time in total.

That led to Ford having to once again cancel supporters’ coaches for the trip – with a refund now set to be given to fans and no coach offered for the restaging.

He told the Daily Echo: “I do think between me and my missus we have spoken to around 200 Poole fans and we have apologised.

“They understand there is genuinely nothing we can do – but I do apologise. We share in their frustration, you know?

“We were so excited to get this on in the original staging. Even up to Sunday we were so looking forward to it. Having a full coach of Poole fans going to make a bit of a racket an create a bit of atmosphere.

“I’m very disappointed in it as I’m sure they are.”

The Wimborne Road promoter also revealed that, as well as having to inform supporters of the postponements, they have also hit him in his own pocket.

“We’ve spent thousands of pounds on cancellation fees for coaches now, which we will never get back,” he added.

“I don’t want to plead poverty but it’s not an insignificant amount of money. It cost the club a lot of money and is not an ideal situation.

“I don’t think we will have quite the same contingent of Poole supporters going when it does get restaged. We wanted them there to cheer on the boys.

“It’s not been easy but what can we do? We have just got to get this done now. We are being as accommodating as we can, we will support Leicester in any way we can just to get the result from this.”

At the time of writing, a new date for the fixture was yet to be confirmed.