SIMON Browne declared himself disappointed at the conduct of Cinderford Town after Wimborne Town’s 200-mile round trip to Gloucestershire proved fruitless.

Magpies’ Southern South & West clash with the league leaders was abandoned around the hour mark due to a waterlogged pitch, the home side 2-1 ahead at that stage.

Kieran Thomas’s deflected strike gave the hosts the lead in the third minute and Mark Williams doubled the advantage shortly before the break when he nodded home Nick Rhodes’s centre.

Ryan Murray put away a Carl Preston cross three minutes into the second period but soon after the action was brought to a halt as the rained hammered down.

While sympathetic to Cinderford’s willingness to get the game played, Wimborne boss Browne felt the Foresters had failed to make a common sense decision in not enlisting a referee to assess the pitch midway through the morning of the fixture.

Browne told the Daily Echo: “I fully understand Cinderford’s reasons for wanting to get the game on as they have had a lot of games postponed because of the weather.

“They are top of the league and I’m sure they don’t want a scenario where they are playing Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday towards the end of the season.

“Looking at the weather forecast for the area, I was very surprised to get a phone call at 9.10am to say that the game was on.

“They had an inspection at 9am to say that the pitch was playable and I fully understand that they needed to let us know as soon as possible in order for us to travel.

“I have no issue with them doing what they did to get the game on but there was no real common sense applied to the decision, because when we got to Cinderford the pitch was really heavy and there were three or four areas which on any other occasion would have been unplayable.

“They could even have notified us an hour into the journey that it would be better to turn back because the game would not be on.

“They could have got a referee in at 10am or 11am and got him to call it off and send everybody home. The idea that we had to wait for the match referee to turn up doesn’t cut the mustard.

“I left home at 9.30am and got back at 9.30pm and did not have a game of football to show for it.

“The overriding thoughts of myself and Brendon (King, assistant manager) on the coach back were that the game was never going to get finished so why was it started?”

Magpies: Murphy, Randall, Johnson, Maybury, Blake, Kellaway, Murray, Old, Stokoe, Waters (Turner, h-t), Preston. Unused sub: O’Hare.