Rangers despondent after call off

Stafford Rangers assistant manager Darren Read has told the players to count themselves lucky after their Blue Square North clash at Farsley Celtic was called off.

The game was postponed just hours ahead of the kick-off, the second time the game has been put back since the original date set for January 9.

It leaves Rangers facing the long trip to Leeds at a later date and gives them no significant edge on the teams around them, as all eight below in the table have at least played the same amount of games.

But it does mean the Marston Road men won't be playing twice a week until the end of the campaign.

Read said: "It's disappointing, it's a game we really don't want to keep putting off, because we just want to get our fixtures played and points on the board. At least we have got a good number under our belt, we have got a couple of midweeks and then it's pretty much Saturday to Saturday until the end of the season.

"Some of the teams below us are likely to be playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday until the end of the season. So there are clubs worse off than us."

Rangers received word the game was off shortly before they were due to travel, after treacherous weather up north over the weekend and right up until match day.

Read said: "The pitch was still under heavy snow in the morning and there was a deep freeze on Monday night which just wouldn't have thawed in time. The weather hadn't got any warmer either, so Farsley decided it was best to call the game off.

"It's safety around the ground as well, it's not the easy ground to get to because you have to go uphill and then halfway down it's on your left, so that would have been a factor as well."

Rangers extended the loan of midfielder Michael Burns from League One Carlisle for another month in time for the postponed game, who will remain at Marston Road until after the home game with Ilkeston on March 20.