referee Eddie Smart admitted he was close to giving Saturday’s local derby between Nuneaton Town and Leamington the go-ahead but was not prepared to put the health and safety of the players on the line.
Mr Smart decided just 90 minutes before kick-off to give the Liberty Way pitch the thumbs down and while his ruling riled plenty on the sidelines, Boro boss Kevin Wilkin and his Leamington counterpart Paul Holleran were disappointed but not surprised.
Birmingham-based referee Mr Smart said: “It was just down the wings where the ground was frozen.
“I arrived at 12.15pm and decided to give the sun a chance to get into the surface. By 1.15pm I’d spoken with both managers and they felt it could go ahead but after I checked the wings again there was no give.
“After discussing the situation with my assistants and with no sign of improvement I felt we would not be able to play 90 minutes of football without incurring a danger to the players.”
Wilkin said: “Both myself and Paul would have played but in the end it was down to the ref and it was not to be.
“A lot of people worked tremendously hard during the morning in a bid to get the pitch fit and it was for them I felt disappointed for. All that hard work was for nothing.”
He added: “I accept it was a big game for both clubs and the conditions would have done neither any favours. It was debatable although maybe it would not have been a fair test for the players.”
Leamington chairman Jim Scott said: “The referee gave it every chance. Certainly the pitch conditions were far worse than ours was last week for our home game against Rugby Town when the referee shocked us all by calling it off.”
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