A glorious, sunny afternoon greeted the fans of Hendon and Slough Town as they travelled to Claremont Road this afternoon, but there were no sunny dispositions in the two dressing rooms after the referee called off the match less than 30 minutes before the scheduled kick-off.

Rain during Friday night had left a tiny rectangle of the pitch - at most six yards by three, outside the penalty area, parallel to the six-yard box and touchline - in a poor condition, but supporters, players and club officials worked hard on the area, laying sand and ensuring no surface water was visible. The remainder of the playing area looked to be in exceptional condition for December.

Hendon have spent tens of thousands of pounds in recent years getting their once notorious Claremont Road pitch into better condition and this postponement was the Greens first home first team game called off in almost five years.

I can recall literally dozens of occasions where matches were played on Claremont Road pitches significantly worse than this one and if the pitch was unplayable today then every game at the ground from October 1999 to May 2000 should have been called off.

Indeed, Hendon and Slough fans stood reminiscing in the pleasant early December sunshine about previous matches played between the two clubs when the pitches - at Claremont Road, Wexham Park and Stag Meadow - were all significantly worse than what they were looking at.

It must be said that the two teams were both desperate to play and the respective managers made representations to the match official in a vain bid to reverse his decision.

Greens manager Gary McCann said, "This is super-frustrating for both teams. We were really keen to play the game.

"The referee felt there was a safety issue with players possibly sliding in the hoardings behind the goal, but this is more likely to happen if a pitch gets wet during a match. When Keiron Dyer of Newcastle did it last week, it was not because the pitch was muddy, but because rain had made the grass slippery.

"Mark West (the Slough manager) and I went to see the referee and begged him to change his mind. We both agreed that if a player was badly injured as a result of the pitch, the referee would be completely absolved of any blame and we would take full responsibility, but he was adamant that the game could not go ahead. We even had fans at a local shop bringing in more sand to spread onto the pitch."

Adding to both managers' frustration was the fact that Walton & Hersham's 2-0 win against Chelmsford City sent Hendon back to the bottom of the Ryman League table on goal difference, while Slough remain in the bottom three despite Worthing losing 3-1 at home to Billericay Town.

(by David Ballheimer)