A delay of nearly 40 minutes following heavy rain over Peterborough United was too long according to Stevenage manager Alex Revell - who said the match should have been abandoned.

Rain had fell for most of the evening at London Road during the Bristol Street Motors Trophy tie between the two League One sides, with splashes evident underfoot from the very first minute.

But a particularly heavy downpour midway through the second half brought more than just splashes, with the ball starting to get stuck in the water.

That was at 8.22pm and after speaking to both captains first of all and then both benches, the referee halted proceedings to see if remedial work could alleviate the problem.

Any restart was pushed back and back as a team of 10 groundsmen worked to fork the pitch, draining the water.

The referee, Stephen Parkinson, was not happy with one part of the pitch but finally he agreed to let the game continue, kicking off again at 9pm.

That delay, however, was too long for Revell who was seen remonstrating with the match official at one point, 27 minutes after the initial halting of the game.

The Boro boss said: "I think it was unplayable and I think you saw that from the pass in the second half when Dan Kemp tried to play it into Harvey White and it stopped and then they broke.

"They obviously wanted to finish the game, they were winning, but for me it was about player safety. 

"You saw [Joel] Randall go down straight away with a hamstring, and then you’re looking at your own players. 

"Carl Piergianni has played every minute near enough of every game and every time he sprinted after that, you just think 'don't get injured’. 

"The second half was probably a bit of self-protection in the minds of the players and it just became a non entity because of the fact we had so much of a wait. 

"I don't agree with it. I thought [the delay] was too long. We're sitting in the changing room around heaters and for me, that's unacceptable. 

"But I suppose someone's obviously said somewhere that the game needs to be played."

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