"IT WAS the only sensible decision to make with the pitch soaked and the rain still falling."
That was the joint verdict of Braintree boss Alan Devonshire and Tranmere counterpart Ronnie Moore after their FA Cup First Round tie was called off on Sunday lunch-time, an hour before kick-off.
With heavy rain still falling and large puddles on parts of the Amlin Stadium pitch Northampton referee Dean Whitestone was left with no option but to call the game off despite it being scheduled to go out live on ITV1.
"It just wasn't playable in those conditions despite all the hard work of the ground staff who I asked to keep the covers on until that last hour in the hope we could get the game played," said Mr Whitestone.
"The ball wouldn't roll properly in places and it wouldn't have been safe for the players and also the surrounding terrace areas were flooded which would have been a crowd safety issue we couldn't allow to happen."
The Iron had covers over the pitch from Tuesday which cost the club the best part £4,000 to install.
They also lost out on valuable revenue from the televised game.
But both managers agreed it would have been unfair to have expected the players to play such a vital game in such terrible conditions.
Devonshire said: "I'm gutted for everyone at the club who had done so much work to get the game on and also for my players who were all geared up for the day.
"We badly wanted to play the game but there's nothing you can do about such situations – it means we have now missed two games in two successive weekends."
Moore, who's team stopped at a Stansted Airport hotel overnight as preparation for the game said: "Of course it's disappointing to have any game called off.
"When I arrived at the ground I wanted the game to be played whatever but subsequently, with the heavy rain continuing, I realised it would have been a lottery out there and I was forced to agree with the officials' decision to call it off."
Around 300 Tranmere fans had made the long trip to the game with coaches having left at 6am only to arrive and find the game called off with fans queuing up at the entrance for the scheduled 11am opening of turnstiles which was delayed on the advice of police and safety officials until they knew if it would be on or not.
Iron captain Kenny Davis summed up the players' disappointment: "It's a big blow because we had all worked ourselves up for it, prepared properly and were dead keen and couldn't wait for the game to start.
"It's all a bit of an anticlimax but there's nothing you can do about it and we have to build ourselves up for when the game is rearranged," he said.
Iron chairman Lee Harding was also disappointed about the game being called off explaining: "There's been a lot of work gone into preparing for this game over the past 10 days or so by a lot of volunteers at the club and it's a great shame it was all for nothing.
"But as a club we did everything possible to try and get the game on, having hired special covers for the pitch and organised extra stewards and much more only to be beaten by the weather.
"Now we have to do it all again but that's just one of those things and you can't do anything else about the weather.
"At least we're were in the Second Round draw and if we can beat Tranmere we have another home game against a Football League club with the winners playing Chesterfield.
"Losing this game has obviously cost us money but hopefully we can recoup some of that when the match is eventually played."
The match had also attracted the attention of the national media with over 40 press representatives due to attend and cover the game while ESPN were to show the game live worldwide to around 70 countries.
"Yes, we have missed out on promoting the club to a wider audience on the day but that's just one of those things," said Harding.
Braintree will get another shot at playing in front of the TV cameras on Tuesday when the match will be shown live on ITV4 from 7.30pm (kick-off 7.45pm).
