Cleckheaton are angry over the late decision to call off their home National League Three North match against Sheffield Tigers yesterday.

“All the spectators and officials were present and both teams had warmed up on the pitch.

“The only problem area was about five square feet in the in-goal area that had been in the shadow of the scoreboard.

“The rest of the pitch and in-goal areas were fine, and the pitch had passed inspections at 9.30am and 11.15am.

“We had vertidrained the pitch on Friday to ensure that it was flat, and if someone had fallen on that small area maybe it would have been hard but we think it was a disgraceful decision to call it off.”

Bentley added: “As far as I am concerned, both sets of players wanted to play but it was the Tigers coaching staff of Richard Senior and Richard Selkirk that didn’t.

“I have just fired off a long edict to our league secretary complaining about the call-off, especially given that we are behind in the fixture schedule.”