Leamington Manager Paul Holleran has said that the Altrincham FA Trophy game which was called off by the referee at 6.30pm last night, should have been played.
Holleran told The Leamington Spa Courier: “The scenario with the pitch is that there were a couple of wet areas and there was concern about the bottom corner. But when the referee takes 45 minutes to decide whether he plays the game, that tells you what you need to know.
“The referee had another think and obviously made his decision.
“At the end of the day the points Altrincham made were viable and the points we made were viable.
“We’d had dialogue with Altrincham and made them aware there were a couple of soft areas.
“We all thought we were singing from the same hymn sheet.
“We’ve played at Bradford Park Avenue in the last few seasons and our pitch was ten times better. I’m not saying it was perfect, but was it enough to call off the game? No.
“I’m bitterly disappointed for the Altrincham fans who travelled down.
“As a football club we looked at the pitch this afternoon and we thought there would be no issue with the game. These were experienced football people. We had a drainage company in and we’ve had umpteen volunteers down.
“I’ll be disappointed if people start pointing the finger at the football club. We’d had dialogue.
“If this pitch wasn’t playable...Bradford Park Avenue, that corner is like their whole pitch.
“It’s cost us nine fixtures with the wind, the rain and now the sand.”