BURNLEY'S ill-fated home clash with Bradford City was postponed for the second time in seven weeks by referee Tony Bates.

The Stoke official had called the game off on New Year's Day because of freezing temperatures and an icy pitch.

Last night it was heavy rain and driving rains that caused the match to be postponed with standing water covering the playing surface at Turf Moor.

The decision was taken an hour before kick off but before any fans had entered the ground and the Clarets' ground director Clive Holt insisted they had done everything they could to get the game on.

"The covers have been on since this morning when the rain started," he explained last night.

"The pitch had certainly drained on Sunday and when the covers came off the surface was playable. But with the rain due to fall between kick-off and midnight the ref decided that if we started we couldn't finish the match.

"It is a very good draining pitch but even it can only take so much."

Bates had arrived at the ground in late afternoon after the rain had been falling for some time.

"The covers were taken off and in the space of half an hour the pitch was covered with surface water," explained the Stoke based official.

"Both managers joined me on the pitch and as always the safety of the players was my main concern. When it is this wet the ball is going to stop and players are going to challenge for it when it is not there."

"We had waited as long as we could before removing the covers and it is unfortunate but there was nothing we could do."

It was the third postponement in recent weeks for Stan Ternent's men, starting with Boxing Day at Rotherham, but the Bantams have been even unluckier with four games called off since New Year's Day.

That should have been new manager Nicky Law's first game in charge and he admitted: "Obviously it is frustrating but it is still hammering down so we didn't have any chance even though we still had an hour to go till kick-off.

"I went out with the ref and Stan and we agreed to leave it to the ref and we agreed with his decision. To be honest I thought it would not be on this afternoon as the weather was not getting any better. We certainly couldn't have played tonight."

One man who might benefit from the postponement is former Bantams star Robbie Blake. Stan Ternent's £1million signing was set for a place on the bench last night but will hope to be fit for the match when a new date has been found.

That will be in several weeks because both clubs have a number of commitments in midweek in the near future.

Bradford's first window of opportunity is not until the week after Burnley's Sunday evening clash with Preston North End so Ternent would be unlikely to want to play again in just 48 hours. The match could be played on the Wednesday or left for another week or even until April.

Ternent had hoped to play a behind closed doors friendly today to give players such as Mitchell Thomas, Andy Payton, Lennie Johnrose and possibly Blake some important match practice following the postponement of tonight's scheduled reserve team clash with West Brom.

But given the torrential rain the practice game must also be in doubt. Ternent now has to prepare his team for the trip to Crewe on Saturday knowing the notoriously soggy pitches at the Gawthorpe training ground will make life difficult.