Dave Challinor explains the real price Hartlepool United paid for postponement at Dagenham & Redbridge

Saturday’s trip to Dagenham & Redbridge was cut short as the pitch at the Chigwell Construction Stadium was declared frozen with confirmation of the postponement coming just over an hour before kick-off.

Pools had already travelled 265-miles to East London, stayed overnight in a hotel with an evening, breakfast and pre-match meal for all players and members of staff.

That doesn’t come cheap with roughly £5,000 being the cost quoted by manager Dave Challinor, whose side had also suffered overnight stay postponements at Barnet and Eastleigh already this season.

But the Pools boss felt it cost the club more than just money this time around as they returned to the north east empty handed following yet another frozen pitch cancellation.

“It’s not only the cost," Challinor told The Mail. “It changes our plans and the lads have spent two days together, 12 hours on a bus, staying overnight in a hotel in the middle of a pandemic, we’ve put people at risk when there was absolutely no need to and it was a wasted journey and a lot of wasted money.

“But we have to move on and let people above us deal with what needs to be dealt with from the club perspective and the club being recompensed for what has happened. We now turn our focus quickly to travelling down to Eastleigh on Monday.”

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