DAVID Hopkin felt City’s FA Cup game at Aldershot should have been called off because of the horrendous playing conditions.

The Bantams boss praised his side’s character for fighting back to force a 1-1 draw at the non-league side and a Valley Parade first-round replay.

But he thought referee Paul Marsden could have abandoned proceedings as heavy rain left surface water in several areas of the pitch.

Hopkin said: “I just thought it could be dangerous in the game. Even when we turned up, there were puddles on the pitch.

“The longer it rained, it becomes dangerous.

“Even at 1-1, I said to the fourth official: ‘call it off now’. I thought a mistake was going to win it.

“You couldn’t get down either side of the pitch. Where it sloped, the water was just sitting.

“If it had been 0-0, he would probably have called it off.

“But I’m delighted with the character for the players to come back. The FA Cup is all about shocks and I told them I didn’t want one today.”

Nathaniel Knight-Percival headed home Jack Payne’s corner to cancel out George Fowler’s early goal for Aldershot.

Hopkin added: “Coaching for me went out the window at half-time. They just had to go out and battle.

“With the run we’ve been on, you think that maybe we aren’t going to score. But Nat’s come up trumps with a fantastic header.

“It was going to be a set-play that got us back in the game and that was true. I just thought we could have scored one or two more goals.

“It’s another game a week on Tuesday and I’m looking forward to hopefully playing on a dry pitch.”

Aldershot boss Gary Waddock agreed with his opposite number about the deteriorating playing conditions.

“If I’m being honest, I thought the game could have been called off in the second half,” he said.

“But credit to the officials and the ground staff for getting it finished.

“We had to adapt. If we’d tried to play our normal passing game, we would have got stuck in the water and a few ducks and swans would have got in the way.”