'Health and safety gone mad' - More reaction to the abandonment of Harrogate Town's showdown with Carlisle United

With the Sulphurites leading 1-0 through Connor Kirby's early header, the match official called a halt to proceedings just 10 minutes into Tuesday night's League Two fixture and approached both dug-outs to share his fears that the EnviroVent Stadium pitch was unsafe.

Despite an argument to the contrary from the Town manager, and his plea to continue the contest in the freezing conditions, Mr Coy was unmoved and wasted little time in bringing the game to a premature conclusion.

"He said that he couldn't run across the surface without difficulty and he was worried about his own fitness and the safety of the players on a hard surface," Weaver explained.

"He said his decision was final and he was going to abandon the game on those grounds.

"I said to the referee, 'please can you give it a bit longer because there's no worried faces out there. No-one has slipped over, no-one has been hesitant on their feet, why are you rushing to a decision?' but that was his mind made up.

"I couldn't change that mind once he said the word 'abandoned'. It's very, very frustrating."

Earlier on Tuesday, an army of volunteers helped clear snow which had fallen on Wetherby Road overnight, and Mr Coy deemed Town's pitch playable during a 5pm inspection.

The playing surface was apparently still fit for purpose when the match got underway shortly after 7.45pm, but less than 10 minutes later, the man in the middle's aforementioned concerns for both his and the players' welfare suddenly became too serious to ignore.

Weaver is however adamant that the surface was safe enough and even went as far as to describe the move to call the game off as "health and safety gone mad."

He added: "Safety has to be at the forefront of everything, but there was no reason to believe that safety was at risk. You can see the stud-marks. The pitch was taking a stud.

"It's health and safety gone mad here. I do feel that it was a perfectly safe pitch to have played a game of football on and you could see that with the players. Nobody was slipping, there was no evidence of any hesitation when striking a ball. Nobody was playing with any trepidation.

"You're going to hear another side of the story from their management, I'm sure, but I felt it was a perfectly good enough pitch to have played football on.

"I've just walked up and down it [after the abandonment] and it's in a better shape now than it was when the referee had no doubts about it at 5.15pm."

The majority of Town's players seemed visibly dismayed when Mr Coy directed them back towards the changing rooms, and Weaver confirmed that their was a sense of annoyance among the group post-match.

"There were annoyed because they didn't see an issue," Weaver continued.

"They hadn't flagged anything up in the warm-up and hadn't flagged any worries up at all, which they would do."

Joining Weaver and his players in their disappointment will doubtless be the hardy soles who braved cold conditions to help rid Town's pitch of snow earlier in the day, ensuring that the contest could at least get underway.

"I feel for the volunteers, the amazing supporters we've got who turned up in numbers here today and worked tirelessly on the pitch to be able to give us a chance of getting the game on," the Harrogate chief added.

"I'd still like to say 'thank you' for their support and amazing efforts today. It's such a shame for those people, they must have been jumping for joy at 1-0 up, only to see the game abandoned.

"I feel more sorry for them than us, to be honest."