Peterborough United: League One club put plans in place to avoid late postponements

Peterborough used heat lamps to try and thaw out areas of the playing surface

Peterborough United have admitted that mistakes were made leading to the late postponement of Saturday's home game against Charlton Athletic.

The game was called off just 90 minutes before kick-off when the referee ruled parts of the pitch unplayable.

The club have offered to pay for more than 30 coaches for Charlton fans when the fixture is rearranged.

"There are things we could have reacted to differently," said interim chief executive Leighton Mitchell.

"Whilst the pitch was undoubtedly affected by the change in forecasted temperatures on Saturday morning, we do recognise that in hindsight, we could have left the pitch covers and lights on the surface for longer and contacted the match official earlier for guidance.

"We recognise the frustration of supporters and make it very clear that we will learn from the postponement and have put in place procedures to ensure the postponement of a fixture at the Weston Homes Stadium that close to kick-off doesn't happen again, certainly from anything that the club can impact upon."

Match officials discussed the pitch with the two managers

Peterborough say they monitored conditions closely throughout last week and frost covers and pitch lights were both used by their pitch maintenance contractor.

A groundsman stayed at the stadium throughout Friday night moving the lamps into different positions.

A club statement said: "On removal of the covers and lights on Saturday morning, the pitch was not frozen and was playable at 9am. Unfortunately, the predicted rise in temperatures did not materialise and in a small section of the playing surface, there were a few concerns, which on arrival of the match referee, were echoed by that official.

"The referee advised the groundsman to redeploy the pitch lights, which he did and everything was done to try and thaw out that section.

"The match referee wanted to give the pitch as long as possible to become playable but he made the decision, after discussions with both managers, to postpone the fixture at 1.30pm."

Charlton boss Dean Holden shook hands with Peterborough's Darren Ferguson after the game was called off

Peterborough's game at Burton Albion on Tuesday was also postponed because of a frozen pitch at the Pirelli Stadium, but that decision was taken at 14:00, almost six hours before kick-off.

As well as offering to pay for coaches for Charlton supporters, Posh have also promised to offer free tickets for fans for the next home league meeting between the two sides.