SILSDEN worked hard in the close season after problems with the playing surface last winter but last Saturday proved that you cannot beat the weather.

Spokesman Jim Rosser said: “A lot of people were saying that our home game against Bacup & Rossendale Borough would be doubtful but they were wrong, even if it was eventually called off.

“Most of them were expecting it to be waterlogged because the valley was awash after all that rain we had a week on Thursday. The river was high and the banks had burst but I was at the ground that Thursday and the pitch was looking okay.

“We had a lot of volunteers working on it in the summer trying to improve the drainage and all the hard graft has paid off. I was on the pitch and it was wet but nothing like it would have been 12 months previous.

“Even if it had rained on the Friday with a bright Saturday morning and a stiff breeze the pitch would have been playable. But then the temperature dropped to minus something and there was no way back from that.

“A lot of the local games were off but plenty in our league went ahead because it wasn’t so bad over Lancashire.

“I know our game was off in the end but the pitch had stood the test of the rain so we’re quietly optimistic that we have made big improvements to it and we don’t expect to have too many games off this season because it’s waterlogged.”