STV Sport understands that St Johnstone have suspended their groundsman Chris Smith for his role in their weekend match with Rangers being postponed because of a frozen pitch. The undersoil heating at McDiarmid Park, which had been in use prior to the Saints' 5-1 home win over Hibernian in midweek, failed overnight on Friday and left one end of the ground frozen solid.
Match official Mike Tumilty was left with no choice but to call off the SPL fixture with just an hour left before kick-off in Saturday's early match, which was set to be televised across Great Britain on Sky Television.
The company responsible for the undersoil heating system, Infoworks Engineering, will visit McDiarmid Park on Tuesday to try and determine the cause of the fault.
Smith, who has been with St Johnstone since 2004, was recognised for his efforts in ensuring last season's First Division champions had a pristine playing surface to play on during theit title-winning season. He was given the accolade of the second best groundsman in the division in 2009, with Greenock Morton's Mark Farrell claiming the divisional prize and Celtic's John Hayes picking up the national award.
Saints chairman Geoff Brown, who wasn't due to attend Saturday's game, was disappointed with the situation that befell the postponement. On Monday, he was at pains to explain how his club's winter pitch protection system could have led to the cancellation of the match with so little time left before kick-off.
"We're still not sure what's happened but I fear there's ice in our pipes at the ground," said Brown on Monday. "Around Christmas, we were around minus 16 at McDiarmid Park. Those pipes are supposed to be just over 200 millimetres into the ground but considering they were put in with just a plough that pulled them through - they could easily be 50mm above that.
"So if there's ice in the pipes and its stopped the water going round, that's where the problem could lie. With undersoil heating, you heat the water to 42 degrees.
"To thaw ice at that temperature would take a bit of doing. There's obviously been a malfunction in our system."
Adequate pitch protection is a requirement of the Scottish Premier League and Brown is also worried his club could be hit in the pocket twice for the postponement, with the possibility of a fine from the league from the Perth side, who have already lost out on revenue from ticket sales and cancelled hospitality.
"The game going off will cost us a six-figure sum because of everything that goes with a match of that size," said Brown. "I want to apologise to all the fans and we'll be very thorough in solving the problem as quickly as we can to ensure this never happens again."
The SPL confirmed that they would be investigating the measures taken by St Johnstone and the circumstances leading to the late postponement. A spokesman for the governing body said: "The SPL is extremely disappointed. The next step will be to review the reports from both the match delegate and the referee. It's too early to judge the rights and wrongs of the timing of this postponement."
St Johnstone have already promised a full refund for supporters who are unable to make the rearranged fixture, for which a date is yet to be set, while all tickets will remain valid for fans who wish to attend the game at the later date.
