FA Cup: Crawley Town v Bristol Rovers abandoned

The FA Cup second-round replay between Crawley Town and Bristol Rovers was abandoned in the second half because of a waterlogged pitch.

Referee Stuart Attwell took the decision with the match goalless after initially taking the players off to assess the worsening conditions.

The two sides drew 0-0 in the initial tie and the winners face a trip to Birmingham City in the third round.

The match has been re-arranged for Saturday, 4 January.

As a result, the third-round tie against Championship club Birmingham will now take place on Tuesday, 7 January.

Crawley came close close to breaking to deadlock when Joe Walsh's goalbound header was pushed on to a post by Steve Mildenhall.

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Crawley Town manager John Gregory told BBC Sussex:

"It was the correct decision. He should have made it a bit earlier as even at half-time it looked awful.

"It is totally unfair on the players to expect them to go out there and play in those conditions.

"The pitch was a complete farce. Water was laying on it, the ball wasn't able to be passed around on the surface and it became a complete lottery.

"The ref was aware it could have gone to penalties and been playing for another 45 minutes."

Bristol Rovers manager John Ward told BBC Radio Bristol:

"Some of my players have said that's some of the worst conditions they've ever had to play in.

"They talked about giving it 10 minutes, but it was only going to get deeper.

"We've got no grumbles about the decision to call it off. Fair play to Mr Attwell, he's made the decision and we abide by that."