MOST understand that life is never easy at Accrington Stanley, but Saturday’s late postponement of their home match against Southend was one of those occasions when the club seem to have made things harder than they needed to be.

With Southend’s team and supporters already in the area, the match was called off by referee Carl Boyeson at 1.30pm because of a waterlogged pitch.

Most suggest he had little choice, with the £70,000 playing surface installed last summer suffering from drainage problems for most of the season.

The referee at Stanley’s previous home match against Morecambe had been close to calling that off, too, even though a relatively dry period had preceded the February 1 fixture.

Given the rather wetter conditions since then, Stanley fans had been speculating all week about whether the Southend game would be on – with a downpour forecast for Friday night.

Yet, certainly not for the first time, Stanley insisted on the Friday that they had no concerns about the match going ahead – only for it to be called off on the Saturday.

Southend boss Paul Sturrock suggested Saturday’s referee was upset not to have been contacted earlier by Stanley and asked to hold a morning pitch inspection, and it would have seemed a more sensible course of action.

In this case, perhaps Stanley’s current financial predicament – they have been short on gate revenue in recent times after a number of previous postponements – made them a little too desperate to try to get the game on.

It was probably well intentioned, but the wrong decision nevertheless.

Now, they face the extra expense of having to pay for the Southend team’s travel and accommodation for the rearranged game – and even Stanley fans felt embarrassed that the Essex side’s supporters had had to make the 500-mile round trip for no reason.

Having made that arduous journey some time ago, trying my best not to fall asleep at the wheel on my way back from a night match at Roots Hall, it is the sort of long day you don’t want to endure without seeing a game at all.

The supporters of both clubs have my sympathy.