Hartlepool United's game at Bristol Rovers was abandoned on Saturday after just 12 minutes.

The Memorial Ground pitch was frozen after a night of below zero temperatures the game should never have started.

Around 200 Hartlepool fans made the trek and Pool manager Chris Turner had every sympathy for his supporters.

"I really feel for them,'' he said. "The fans have paid their money to get here and paid their money to get in - how many of them can come back when the game is played?

"It was obviously that there was going to be a heavy frost. So common sense tells you that the referee should be here by 10am to check the pitch.

"That would have saved our fans from travelling all the way here. But to call it off after just 15 minutes or so means everyone from Hartlepool has had a wasted 500-mile round trip.

"Of course I feel sorry for our supporters - it's too far to travel to see only a few minutes.''

Turner added: "We did hear a whisper this morning that the game was in doubt, but our secretary checked with Bristol and we understood there was no problems.''

The Pool players weren't too happy with the surface before the game as they warmed up - striker Gordon Watson started the game wearing trainers.

"The pitch wasn't fit to play in the first place,'' said Turner.

"And after the players went out it was only going to get worse.

"The referee came over to us after he started and said he was going to give it two or three minutes more - why bother and why not just call it off straight away?

"I said to him that if we were one-up and he called it off we would have to accept it - but if they had scored and it was going to be stopped then he wasn't to be encouraged to keep it going.''

Pool could have been two goals down in the 12 minutes played. With just 30 seconds on the clock, Nathan Ellington shot wide of an open goal before Latvian midfielder Vitalijis Astafjevs collected a cross and beat Anthony Williams in the Pool goal but saw his shot crash off the crossbar.