REFEREE Graham Salisbury defended his controversial call to postpone last night’s League One clash at Bristol Rovers after the decision came under fire from Cherries boss Lee Bradbury.

The Lancashire official deemed the Memorial Stadium surface unplayable around 90 minutes before the scheduled 7.45pm kick-off.

Cherries’ team coach was said to have arrived moments later and manager Bradbury and his players were extremely frustrated at the verdict.

Bradbury admitted he could explore the possibility of lodging a complaint about the decision.

But Salisbury, who will take charge of this season’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final, felt he made the right move.

Speaking to the Echo, he said: “The game was postponed due to a heavily waterlogged pitch.

“The pitch was saturated in areas and it just would not have been conducive to a game of football.

“We all had to travel and take time off work but it would not have been a game of football and that had to be our main concern, as well as our duty of care to both sets of the players.”

An angry Bradbury told the Echo: “The ref said there were water patches on the pitch and the ball was stopping. We had the ball out there and kicked it about and it was not stopping. There was no surface water.

“I would have understood if it was lashing down with rain and he was thinking, in an hour, he would have had to call it off. But that was not the case at all.

“He said it was dangerous in that the ball was stopping in surface water. The ball was rolling freely. It was a little bit boggy, but a lot of pitches are at this time of year.”

A number of Cherries fans had already arrived at the ground and the Dean Court chief thanked them for their support.