VERWOOD Town took the lead in their crunch clash with Sydenhams Wessex One relegation rivals Folland Sports – only for the game to be abandoned.

A Brad Gale effort had put Potters ahead but minutes before half-time at Folland Park, one of the referee's assistants suffered an ankle injury and was unable to continue.

With no replacement forthcoming, proceedings were halted.

Verwood boss Adie Arnold, who admitted he had never seen such an incident before, told the Daily Echo: "There's normally someone who can take over but there was nobody in the ground who was qualified.

"We have been on a decent run and got our noses in front in a big game against a side around us, so it was disappointing.

"There was an assessor there and he said he couldn't run the line which I found a bit strange. If you are assessing officials, I'd have thought you could do the job for half a game but that's my personal view.

"We will have to go there on a Tuesday night but that's one of those things.

"We had some momentum going and were 1-0 up. Now we have no game for a couple of weeks but that's football."