Jay Saunders felt referee Marc Edwards was right to abandon Maidstone’s game at AFC Fylde.

Stones were 2-1 down after 48 minutes when Edwards took the teams off in increasingly difficult conditions in the wind and rain.

Bosses Saunders and Fylde’s Dave Challinor were asked for their views and Edwards abandoned the match moments later, with the ball not rolling in some areas.

Ground staff had swept water off the pitch at half-time but were fighting a losing battle, leaving Stones and their fans with another 590-mile round trip.

Saunders wanted to get the game finished - and fancied his side’s chances of a second-half fightback - but agreed with the referee.

He said: “You could see it was getting worse and worse and as we were coming out for the second half, the fourth official said ‘we’ll keep an eye on it’ and then he’s approached me and just said ‘what’s your feelings on it?’

“First of all I said ‘I don’t want to be coming back up on a Tuesday night’ but then the ball got caught up in midfield and went back to Lee Worgan and it took a funny turn.

"If the ball starts to stop, that’s when you have to call it because it becomes dangerous and also the game becomes unrealistic, so you could be losing points on a ball stopping.

“When it went back to Worgs and stopped, you’re thinking ‘if they nick that and score…’

“To be fair, their manager felt the same so we kind of said you’ve got to make that decision.

“They took everyone off the pitch and the ref said ‘I don’t feel it’s playable but what are your feelings?’

“Dave and myself said ‘ultimately you’re the referee and you’ve got to make that decision’ but for me I didn’t think it was playable. It just got too much.

"It’s a shame because we don’t want to come back here on a Tuesday but it is what it is.”

Ironically, it was the sort of afternoon that was right up Saunders’ street as a player but you can’t take the risk these days.

He added: “That’s the first thing Worgs said when he came in. He said ‘that’s a bit of you there.’

“I played in a few like that down at Margate when we had the big slope on the pitch.

“I’ve always been a big believer that wind can have a bigger effect than a bad pitch but it just got silly and when the ball’s stopping you get injuries.

“I think Joe Anderson has picked up an ankle injury that maybe in different conditions doesn’t happen because you just slightly misread a ball.

"I’m disappointed because I honestly believed we could get back in it and really take the game to them second half but it’s the correct decision.”

Read the match report from Maidstone’s abandoned game at AFC Fylde