REFEREE Graham Laws defended his decision to call-off York City's game at home to Lincoln City at the 11th hour, writes Dave Stanford.

A 10.30am pitch inspection had deemed the surface playable and a further check at noon also gave the match the green-light.

However, a 1pm downpour forced another inspection from Laws at 1.50pm before the decision to postpone the match was finally made at 2.15pm.

The Whitley Bay official said: "When I inspected the pitch at 10.30am it was perfectly playable with no problems whatsoever.

"But it was obvious that if there was further rain there would be problems so I arranged a further inspection at noon.

"At that time the pitch was still playable. However, shortly after 1pm heavy rain fell and it resulted in the pitch being 70 per cent playable and 30 per cent unplayable.

"What you have got to remember is I have a duty to the players in addition to the spectators.

"As far as the players are concerned, the conditions were such that there could have been a serious injury.

"As far as the spectators are concerned, we should have a surface that enables us to have a reasonable game of football and some entertainment. In my view that would have been impossible."

Saturday's postponement was unfortunate for many fans who travelled the country to take part in the Fans United march and show of support for the club.

It was also costly as the club lost more than £3,000 having already incurred many match-day costs.

The rearranged date will also probably get a smaller, which will almost certainly move to a midweek fixture probably in March.

The postponement has forced an alteration to the arrangements of the 'Save City' season ticket.

The ticket is for the final seven games of the season and had been due to

start for the Hartlepool United fixture at Bootham Crescent on Saturday, February 16. Now that the Lincoln City game will be played in March or April, it will be included in those seven games.

This means the ticket will not now come into operation until Tuesday, February 26 for the game with Carlisle United.

Updated: 11:42 Monday, February 04, 2002