Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor has his say on abandoned National League match at Eastleigh

The sides went in 0-0 at half-time before the officials made the decision to abandon the match.

With player safety paramount, it was a decision that Pools boss Dave Challinor supported.

He said after the abandoned game: “It was absolutely the right decision although as I’m talking now the rain has almost stopped!

"It was impossible to play on and dangerous for the players. But the level we’re at and the pitches we have, it’s not like we have a couple of areas of concern, the whole pitch was saturated so to get water off it with no guarantee that the rain would clear up just made it an impossible task.

"A lot of work went on in the build-up to the game to get the pitch in a decent state to start the game which was absolutely fine. That took a lot of time and then they had 15-minutes at half-time to try and do work that took the volunteers hours this afternoon, it was going to be an impossible task.”

Pools were first informed that the game could be in doubt on Saturday morning due to the weather forecast in Hampshire.

But a strong volunteer effort from the home side got the pitch playable in time for the 5:20pm kick-off live on BT Sport.

While disappointed that his side now face yet another lengthy journey in the coming weeks for the rescheduled game, Challinor praised the efforts of the Spitfires’ ground staff.

“They did everything they could to get the game to continue but we're in a situation where we don’t have the equipment to get that much water off the pitch in such a short spell of time,” Challinor added.

“When the rain is coming down the way it was on an already saturated pitch, you could get away with it if you had one or two problem areas but not when it’s the full pitch like it was.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Hartlepool United coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor