ACCRINGTON Stanley chief executive Rob Heys has spoken of his disappointment after last night’s League Two clash against Darlington fell foul of the weather again.

The game, originally scheduled for January 10, was called off for a second time by a local referee yesterday afternoon despite the Stanley ground staff working overtime to get the pitch ready.

A new date for the game will be finalised in due course.

But Mr Heys insisted that the pitch was playable and the postponement had given the club a problem in terms of re-scheduling and the loss of finance from the game.

He said: “It was extremely disappointing to be honest.

"The pitch is playable but the referee who came to assess the surface said he was concerned about a couple of areas of the pitch because they might have frozen over as the night went on.

“His decision was final and it’s caused us a lot more work because we had to struggle to arrange the game for this week.

“I went on the pitch later in the day and it was definitely playable, but I think the referee was concerned that Darlington were having to travel down from the north east and didn’t want them to travel unnecessarily.

“Sometimes there is severe frost or heavy snowfall and there’s nothing you can do about that.

"But that wasn’t the case and the pitch was in good condition and the game could have been played.”

He added: “It’s not just disappointing that we have to try and squeeze another game in – we’ve already had to re-arrange this game twice and the Brentford game from earlier in the season.

"It’s disappointing from a financial perspective.

“We work on very tight budgets and the loss from those games has an impact on us – both in terms of running the club and helping to bolster the squad.

“The money would have come in useful in trying to bring new players in.”