WORCESTER City manager Carl Heeley believes it was the right decision to postpone the FA Trophy clash against Halifax.

Yesterday's first round proper match against the Conference outfit at Aggborough was called off due to a frozen pitch about an hour before kick-off and is now set to take place on Tuesday, December 23.

Referee Mark Pottage deemed the surface unfit because of a frozen area by the south east corner flag.

No inspection was carried out in the morning but City officials insist that, under the terms of their ground-share, all pitch issues are the responsibility of landlords Kidderminster Harriers.

The Halifax team were already at the ground, while around 200 fans had travelled from West Yorkshire.

But Heeley felt Pottage had acted in the interests of player safety and the City boss was not apportioning blame.

He said: “There wasn’t a pitch inspection.

“The match referee arrived and looked at the pitch, it was the first time any of us from Worcester had seen it and it was quite clear it was going to be a doubt.

“It’s frustrating because we were ready to go and Halifax had travelled. In all honesty it’s a tough call because the pitch was perfect apart from the one area but it was the right decision to call the game off.

“It’s easy in hindsight to say we could have done things earlier but it’s one of those things, you can’t do anything about the weather.”

However, Heeley reckons the postponement could be a blessing in disguise as it has given City extra time off ahead of Wednesday’s crunch FA Cup second round replay against Scunthorpe United.

Striker Daniel Nti (virus) and centre-half Wayne Thomas (ankle) were set to miss the Halifax encounter but should now be fit for the visit of the Iron in front of the BT Sport cameras.

The City boss said: “People like Dan and Wayne would have been doubts for Saturday but they’ve now got extra recovery time so it’s not all negatives.”