City v Crystal Palace: City are desperate to reschedule the home game with Crystal Palace before the end of the month.

Referee Eddie Evans called off the match today after an 11am pitch inspection even though both clubs wanted to play.

The Manchester official felt the surface was dangerous because it was still frozen in some areas, particularly by the D of the penalty area at the Bradford end.

The postponement leaves the cash-strapped Bantams with the nightmare prospect of a three-week wait before they can receive much-needed income from their next game at the Bradford & Bingley Stadium.

The club are hoping to re-arrange Palace's visit within that gap, although the possibility of moving it to Tuesday has been ruled out because of the lack of notice for police.

One possible date could be Wednesday, January 22 - the previous night would be an non-starter due to the next round of the fire strike.

Chairman Gordon Gibb said: "It's another problem we could do without especially with there not being any other home fixtures in January. I was surprised with the decision because having seen the state of the pitch yesterday I was about 85 per cent certain it would go ahead.

"I did ask about using hot blowers as I saw they had done at Bristol City this week. But the last time we did they melted the covers and at £30,000 each that wasn't a risk we could take! But hopefully we can get the game re-arranged at the earliest opportunity."

Stadium manager Alan Gilliver admitted the ground staff had been hampered by the weather since the last home game on Boxing Day.

Gilliver said: "First we had all the rain, then it snowed and no sooner had we put all the divots back then the surface just froze up. We've had the covers on for three nights to keep out any further frost but you can't beat the weather.

"We've worked our socks off in the last few days to try to get this on. It's so frustrating because the pitch looks perfect and the sunshine was on it but maybe the young referee didn't want to take a chance."

Both managers accompanied Evans on the inspection and City boss Nicky Law felt his decision was probably the right one.

He said: "I'm obviously very disappointed but the whole of the bottom half was solid. Trevor Francis was keen to give it a go like me but at no stage was the referee going to deem it playable.

"You could ask why he didn't give it another hour to see if the ground would soften. But there is more to it than that and by midday you have spectators starting to get there and to call it off then would create more problems.

"We desperately tried to get it on because financially it was very important for the club. But the referee was adamant it was unplayable and ultimately he lives and dies by that decision."