Saddlers unhappy over ref decision

Chris Hutchings today questioned the decision to call off Walsall's clash with Norwich but admitted he had to accept the referee's verdict.

The clash at the Banks's Stadium was postponed just 55 minutes before kick-off yesterday due to a frozen pitch, despite ground staff working on the surface since 8am.

Referee Mark Haywood decided in the interests of player safety not to play but boss Hutchings believes the game could have gone ahead.

He said: "As soon as I walked on the pitch I felt it would have been playable. Last week against Orient was probably a bit worse. It was the referee's decision and we have to go along with him no matter how hard we feel about it.

"What can we do? The pitch was basically playable. A lot of people put so much hard work in to get the game on and it's frustrating, especially after last week when we played Orient and it was arguably a little worse."

Norwich manager Paul Lambert agreed with the official's decision but felt the call could have been made earlier to stop Norwich fans making the 165-mile journey. "Maybe there should be some sort of way to stop people travelling a long distance to come and watch a game that is not going to be played," he said.