Heavy rain sinks Braintree and Oxford hopes as match is abandoned

Vanarama National League South

Persistent and heavy rain sunk Braintree Town and Oxford City’s hopes of getting their Vanarama National League South game completed at the IronmongeryDirect Stadium.

The Good Friday fixture had survived a morning pitch inspection and the Oxford team coach being delayed on its way to the ground to make it to the scheduled 3pm kick-off.

However, persistent rain in the hours before had done little to help the pitch situation and conditions quickly deteriorated on the boggy surface.

Puddles started to form and the roll of the ball became erratic, meaning that play was scrappy from both sides, although both did at least try to play some football despite the increasingly tough conditions.

Braintree did try to assert themselves in forward areas and had a sight of goal on 15 minutes.

A good move saw the Iron break, with Billy Crook carrying the ball to the edge of the Oxford area before releasing Ben Wyatt, but his shot was blocked away.

It was a rare opening, though, as the worsening conditions made it tough to open clear-cut chances and a lot of the play was scrambled as the players found it difficult to stand up, let alone create goal-scoring opportunities.

As the rain refused to relent, though, the inevitable happened on 31 minutes when referee Ian Fissenden took the decision to abandon the game.

He had already called the captains together and spoken to both management teams, but, after giving it one last go, decided enough was enough and took the players off.

The game will now be rescheduled to a later date and the Iron will prepare for their Easter Monday trip to St Albans City.

Braintree Town: Nathan McDonald, Jon Muleba, Ricky Gabriel, Christian Frimpong, Mark-Anthony Okoye, Diaz Wright, Luke Allen, Billy Crook, Marcel Barrington, Reece Grant, Ben Wyatt.

Subs not used: Roman Michael-Percil, Mahrez Bettache Jack Curtis, Josh Hill, Dan Thompson.

Referee: Ian Fissenden.