Mansfield Town frustrated at called off match

A FEW frank views from Mansfield Town's players on Twitter showed the frustration met by the late cancellation of last night's top-of-the-table clash at Wrexham.

The journey from north Nottinghamshire took place after a dry day and sun locally, but over in north Wales overnight snow and rain had taken its toll.

A local referee had passed the pitch fit at 1pm so the decision to cancel the game because of a waterlogged surface at the Racecourse Ground came totally out of the blue for manager Paul Cox and his men, when made shortly after 3pm with the players travelling along the A50 near Stoke.

Victory over second-placed Wrexham – who contest the FA Trophy final against Grimsby at Wembley on Sunday – could have moved the Stags five points clear at the top of the Blue Square Bet Premier with a game in hand.

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The fact both clubs have no spare Tuesdays before the season ends on April 20 means they will have to clash on a Thursday, but boss Cox is undeterred by that prospect, in the chase for top spot and automatic promotion.

He said: "There is no use crying over spilt milk. We've just got to get on with it and build towards Macclesfield (on Saturday).

"With us and Wrexham not having any more Tuesdays when we are both free, it means at some stage we are going to have to play a Tuesday and Thursday.

"But we have nine games to go and it doesn't really bother me if we play them one after the other.

"I just wish we'd been told a bit earlier (about the postponement)."

Match referee Peter Bankes called at the ground after breaking away from an FA course to take a look at the pitch.

"One end of the ground is particularly waterlogged, despite the best efforts of the ground staff," he said. "It was an easy decision."

The pitch was recovering from the weekend, but the staff could only get a roller on the wings. A quiet night was suggested, but in the end Wrexham had about half an inch of snow and while that melted, it only set the pitch back.

The staff removed the surface water again yesterday morning. But one half, while not having standing water, was still saturated – making it even difficult to walk across it.