FC United officials amazed at referee's decision to call off Workington game

Unfortunately today’s game against Workington AFC has been postponed after the referee deemed the pitch too dangerous to play on due to icy hard patches. We apologise to both sets of supporters for the late postponement of this game but the referee was not happy with the surface and called the game off at 1.50pm.

FC United general manager Andy Walsh commented: "We were amazed at the referee’s decision to call the game off. Both sets of players and managers were happy to play the match and we pleaded with the referee to reconsider her decision in the light of many Workington and FC United fans travelling long distances to get to the game. We also contacted the league to see if we could get a second opinion but they said that we had to abide by the decision of the matchday referee who has the final say."

Alan Hargrave, the FC United board member with responsibility for matchday operations said: "The night before the game and early on Saturday morning FC United received word from Stalybridge that the ground would be fine as the covers were on overnight and on the morning of the game Stalybridge officials confirmed that in their opinion the pitch should be fine to play on. At no stage did FC United believe that the game was under threat, hence the surprise expressed by Andy Walsh and our manager Karl Marginson at the official’s decision to call the match off.

Andy Walsh said: "We can only apologise to both sets of supporters who made the journey to Stalybridge today. Everyone connected with FC United is extremely disappointed with the referee’s decision to call off the game so late in the day. We did everything in our power to try to persuade the referee to change her mind but to no avail."

An announcement on the date of the rearranged fixture will be made as soon as is possible.