The big freeze put pay to Harpenden Town’s crunch clash with Biggleswade FC with the match being called off just an hour before kick-off.

The original tie in December was abandoned after a serious injury to Harpenden’s Matt Sutton.

And although the pitch at Rothamsted Park had passed an afternoon inspection, a further look at it by the match referee was enough to call it off.

The game had been eagerly anticipated by fans, both connected to the club and neutral, as it pitted first against second in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One.

And Harpenden manager Danny Plumb was one of those disappointed, although he agreed the decision was the the right one.

He said: “It’s a shame. We had a strong side [available] but they’re a good side and they’re on a really good run. We’ve still got to play them twice but we go on to Ampthill on Saturday and we’ll just concentrate on that.

“I would have liked to have played it definitely. We wanted to play it but the referee has had to make a decision for player safety.

“The problem is it’s probably just about ok to start but give it an hour and if one team is 1-0 or 2-0 up and it gets called off, you’re either going to be really happy or really disappointed. So it was probably the right thing to do but we’re still disappointed.”

That Biggleswade run has seen them go 14 unbeaten in the league, a run that has included 13 wins.

But Harpenden themseleves are in fine form, having won 16 of their last 17 games in all competitions, including the last 10 in succession.

Plumb, however, was not getting carried away.

He said: “It’s ok. We’ve made a couple of good signings. Getting David [Keenleyside] is a good signing and we should have another one up our sleeves which will hopefully go through.

“We’ve probably got 18 to 20 or so players who can come into the first team and there’ll be no major drop. The quality doesn’t go down, they’re just introduced seamlessly. That’s where we’ve been strong.

“The problem, or the fun, will be when all of them are available. But that’s great and I’ll be happy to deal with that when I have to.

“And I would suggest players can’t really moan too much when you’re winning. They do understand how it works; we need to keep a winning side.

“We’ve just got to keep it going and the motto is one game at a time as I’ve said before.

“We’ll train Thursday and then go on to Ampthill on Saturday.”