AT 10am on Saturday Cowdenbeath’s Championship clash with Hearts looked to have a good chance of going ahead.

However, when the covers were removed, while the vast majority of the pitch was in perfect condition despite the hard overnight frost, the goalmouths were found to be hard in places.

The referee, Greg Aitken, was concerned about the condition of the goalmouths at his inspection at around 11am but with the weather by this time clouding over and getting milder he decided to leave it for half an hour.

However, when he went back out some 30 minutes later the hard areas had eased only slightly and with another couple of bits of the pitch also firm, he decided to postpone the game.

With a crowd of around 3500 expected it was very disappointing for club officials.

Said chief executive, Alex Anderson, “The covers were down for three days but the temperature was such overnight that the goalmouth areas became very hard and in the interest of the players’ safety the referee took the decision to call the game off at about 11.30am.

“The fixture has been re-arranged for Tuesday 23rd December at 7.45pm when tickets sold for Saturday will be valid.” Hearts had sold around 2700 briefs for the fixture while Cowden fans had bought just short of 800 so the frost ruined what would have been a big day for the club and the town.

So the match now goes on two days before Christmas and club officials are hopeful of well over 3000 at the re-arranged game.