CONTROVERSY raged on after Caldicot Castle's match against Rockfield Rovers, after the Gwent County League appeared to overrule the home side at the weekend.

Caldicot Castle arrived at their ground to find it had suffered from a combination of heavy rain and the unusually high tide on the River Severn earlier that morning.

The ground, which often suffers when tides are high because of the height of the water table around the Castle area, was waterlogged in places and there was standing water in various parts of the pitch.

The club contacted the league to tell them that in the opinion of the club and its officials, the pitch was unplayable but was told they (the league) were sending a referee to confirm it.

When the referee arrived, he instructed the club's groundsman to fork the flooded areas to allow the water to drain away – a common practise in such circumstances.

However, the groundsman pointed out that as the pitch is laid on a clay layer, the water does not soak away easily and so he was told to use brushes to sweep the water away.

Castle manager Dave Adamson said: "I've been told the ref turned up with instructions to get the game on, no matter what had to be done.

"It's incredibly frustrating as a small club. We spent £800 on our pitch this summer and £1,000 on it during the previous summer.

"We know our pitch has never been the best but we are striving to improve it within our financial constraints.

"The ref told us to fork it then advised us to brush the water off, which we have done in the past, but sweeping turns the area brushed into a swamp.

"In our opinion the decision to play the game was made before the ref turned up.

"The water was brushed off and as expected made the pitch a nightmare."

The game – against promotion hopefuls Rockfield Rovers – went ahead with the visitors winning 3-1 thanks to goals from George Ryley (2) and Greg Tynan.

One of the Rovers' players described the playing surface as only good for mud wrestling, while another said it wasn't even fit for playing rugby on, let alone football.

The Castle boss refuted the suggestion that the decision to postpone the match was because he had a weakened team.

"We had a decent team out so there are no complaints from us, on that score," he said.

"James McKeon equalised an early Rovers goal but they handled the conditions much better than we did and they were the better side. I wish them good luck in their promotion push."