Chairman Brian Constable was left seething last night after Witney Town's game against Dartford was allowed to go ahead despite atrocious weather conditions at Marriotts Stadium.

Constable claims that referee Bob Desmond's decision to play the match has done over 10,000 damage to the pitch.

The match was abandoned after 63 minutes with heavy snow falling and Dartford leading 3-2.

Fifty per cent of the pitch was covered by water 30 minutes before kick off with heavy rain continuing to fall.

The groundsman also had to mark the pitch twice - only for the torrential rain to wash away the lines.

Constable said he will report the referee to the Football Association.

"In 35 years as a referee, I have never seen a pitch in such a bad condition prior to the start of a match," Constable said.

"It was never playable from the start. My groundsman has resigned and thanks to this referee, the pitch has suffered 10,000 worth of damage."

Constable contacted the Dr Martens League before the game started to express his concerns.

"I rang the league at 7.20pm to inform them that the pitch was not playable and that it was a certainty that the game would not be finished," he said.

Match report

Story date: Wednesday 12 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.