Game on!

FC Isle of Man WILL play Bury tomorrow morning, the club has confirmed.

Bury’s squad will travel to the island tomorrow morning from Manchester and the game will kick off at 11am.

With fog causing chaos at the airport, the team’s Loganair flight had been unable to land at Ronaldsway before going back.

The issue of whether or not Bury could have travelled to the island tonight has led to a war of words between the clubs.

FC Isle of Man has said: ‘We are very pleased to let you know that we have just heard from Bury Football Club and since our earlier statement in which we advised that they had left Manchester airport at 3.30pm a deadline which wasn’t agreed with FC Isle of Man, they have decided to book on a flight from Liverpool to the Island at 7am tomorrow morning.

‘The game will therefore be played tomorrow (Sunday 18th) with an 11:00am kick off and the ground will open at 10:00am. All tickets purchased for the game will be valid tomorrow, for anyone who doesn’t have a ticket they can be purchased on the gate.

‘We will be streaming the game free of charge to all fans and will issue a refund to any fans who had purchased the live stream. We look forward to welcoming you to The Bowl tomorrow and are grateful to all our volunteers for their considerable efforts to make this happen.’

Airport 

Earlier today, the Ravens said Bury’s players had left the airport at 3.30pm, just about 10 minutes before the club was informed that the travelling party had all been booked on this evening’s flights.

The Ravens said: ‘However we are sadly informed that the players had left the airport at 15.30pm and the opposition club aren’t making any attempt to get the players back. We can only hope that there is a reconsideration of this decision and they return to the airport for the flight so that the game can be played tomorrow.’

However, the league leaders denied this and responded: ‘The players were told definitively at 3.30pm today at Manchester Airport that there was no way they would be able to board the last flight to the Isle of Man at 6.10pm tonight. If there was the slightest chance of flying they would have stayed.

‘FC Isle of Man issued a statement suggesting there was room on the flight and the players refused to return and board it. This is misleading as there was no realistic chance of the players returning to the airport and onto the plane in time to fly when requested.

‘We are disappointed with the approach they have taken, given it serves only to further frustrate the supporters who have travelled in their numbers to the island. The players care deeply about playing, and having spent many hours waiting at the airport would not have left if they thought there was any opportunity to get on a flight. Many live a good distance away from Manchester Airport and travelled by public transport to get there.

‘We are acutely aware of how frustrated our supporters will be having spent time and money travelling to the Isle of Man. We want to reassure them that the players and management team did and are doing everything possible to play this fixture.’