BRADFORD Park Avenue suffered yet another late postponement as the match referee called a halt to their Vanarama Conference North home game against fellow strugglers Gloucester City.

As with the previous Saturday’s FA Trophy tie against Kidderminster, a local referee had passed the pitch fit following an early-morning inspection. The final decision, however, is with the match official and his late call left everyone frustrated.

Kevin Hainsworth said: “It’s very annoying but there’s nothing we can do. We do everything by the book and get a local referee in but the match ref came and said it wasn’t fit and we’re stuck in the middle.

“I actually asked the match ref how it was that he had arrived at the opposite decision to the local ref when both are qualified to the same level and are following the same guidelines but he just said that, in his opinion, it was dangerous.

“For it to happen twice on consecutive Saturday is unbelievable. We thought the pitch was better than it was when we played Kidderminster on Monday.”

Everyone at the club was disappointed by the decision as it came so late that even their own supporters were already travelling to the ground.

Hainsworth said: “It’s difficult to prevent because we do things properly by keeping everyone up to date. We keep the Twitter feed and the website bang up to date but when games are called off so late people are already on their way.”

The local referees who inspect the pitch early in the morning are acting in good faith but they cannot predict what the match referee will decide.

The club are hoping the situation does not arise again as it leaves them out of pocket every time it happens.

Hainsworth added: “The last thing we want is to have a game called on only for it to be off by kick-off time because at the end of the day it costs us money.

“Once the early morning inspection is done I meet with the catering and bar staff and we get the supplies in, including the fresh sandwiches for the directors’ hospitality, and when most of that is wasted it all adds up.

“On top of that we have the match officials’ expenses, which on Saturday came to over £200, and we have to cover travelling costs. For Gloucester that will be around £500 or £600.

“At least we don’t get fined by the League as they see it as we have done whatever we could to prevent it.

“You also have the double whammy of when the game is replayed it will be a Monday night and the crowd figures will be down. There will be hardly any away supporters – they can’t travel from Gloucester for a midweek game when they have work the following day.”