The National League has come into criticism from Oldham Athletic manager Micky Mellon for the handling of last week's postponed game with Halifax Town.

Images of the Shay Stadium the Sunday before the scheduled game made it evident that a pitch that had already taken a battering from the weather would not be playable in time for the Latics' trip there the following Wednesday.

But it was not until the eve of the game that the fixture was called off for the second time, with Halifax unable to find an alternative venue to host the game - a situation that left Latics in the lurch until Sunday when it was confirmed the game would go ahead at Chesterfield tomorrow night (Thursday, April 18).

"I'm sadly not surprised about the lack of communication that was coming our way," said Mellon.

"I've been in non-league before and it just wasn't professional enough. There wasn't enough coming our way to tell us what was going on.

"We all knew when we saw the state of Halifax's pitch that it was going to be very difficult.

"Halifax have had struggles for months with their pitch and that's fine, everybody knows that. You can't legislate for the weather but what you can do is prepare, and that just was never done.

"We knew that it was never going to be on but we never heard until the day before that it wasn't, and there was no plan. Zero plan. It's a wee bit embarrassing for the league."

Mellon was also critical of the timing of their game.

"People are kicking off on different days of the week and we can get to Thursday and have to play a game 36 hours later at quarter past 12, which is dangerous for the wellbeing of the players because it's not enough recovery time.

"You just wouldn't do it at any other time," he said.

"But I'm not surprised. It is what it is and you have to get on with it, even though the mind boggles at the lack of organisation and communication. It's poor. But it is what it is and maybe that's part of the charm of non league that it is so unorganised.

"We'll get on with it."