BRADFORD Park Avenue boss John Deacey and his Goole counterpart Curtis Woodhouse did not know whether to laugh or cry when the midweek cup tie was postponed.

Avenue travelled to Goole on Tuesday night, only for the West Riding County Cup second-round clash between the clubs to fall foul of the fog, or an over-officious official.

The Avenue manager said: “We were hoping to get the cup tie played but the Goole game was ridiculously called off. It was a joke decision but it's no joke when everything was in place and ready.

“You couldn’t see both ends at seven o’clock but at quarter to eight you could see a hundred yards past either end. Me and Curtis both wanted to play it, we wanted to get it out of the way.

“Both teams were there, the supporters were there and at kick-off time it was fine. I just find it absolutely ridiculous that the referee wasn’t prepared to make his decision a bit closer to kick-off.”

The clubs are likely to make a second attempt to get the tie played this Tuesday but that is yet to be confirmed. Deacey was quick to thank Woodhouse and Goole for their hospitality, which meant it wasn't an entirely wasted evening.

“It would have been ideal for us because I wanted to get Nathan Hotte and Nathan Turner half an hour. They have trained all week and it would have been perfect to get them a run-out in a competitive game," added Deacey.

“If they had got that half hour or 25 minutes it could have made all the difference to their fitness for today’s league game at Colwyn Bay.

“We actually trained on the pitch. It was that clear that we had a very good session on it when we should have playing a cup tie. That was down to Goole, who let us train on it, which was very good of them.

“That saved our week really because we had cancelled training because of the match so it would have been a wasted day if Goole hadn’t been so good with us. If we hadn’t got that session, our preparation for the Colwyn game would have been affected.”