AFC Wimbledon versus Portsmouth postponed due to waterlogged pitch

The Sky Bet League 2 fixture between AFC Wimbledon and Portsmouth has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

The lunchtime kick-off, which was due to be shown live on Sky Sports 1, has been called off as Storm Katie continues to batter southern England.

Wimbledon's Twitter account revealed that a pitch inspection had been set for 9.15am on Monday morning after heavy rain overnight, but the game at Kingsmeadow has now been postponed.

A tweet from the club said: "Game off. Our match versus Portsmouth has been postponed."

Both sides are chasing a play-off place in League 2. 

Referee Andy Madley told Sky Sports News HQ he had to take the players' safety into consideration when making his decision to postpone the game.

"As you can see there is plenty of standing water all over the field of play and the water unfortunately isn't draining when we tried to put a fork into the pitch," he said.

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"You look at the rest of the field and it doesn't look too bad until you actually get on top of it and kick a football around and, apart from the fact that the game would turn farcical, I've got to take the players safety into account and unfortunately it is not worth the risk this morning.

"We've obviously got fans travelling up from Portsmouth, the club have gone to all the effort to get the game on and that all comes into account but ultimately we do have to take players' safety into account and it is just not worth that risk today."

The groundsman at Kingsmeadow tried to ensure the game went ahead but the threat of further rain meant postponement was inevitable, according to Madley.

"He initially thought if you could put a fork into the ground then the water would disappear, and on the grassy areas it was doing, but unfortunately it is a sand-based pitch," he said.

"And whenever he was putting the pitchfork into the sandy areas the water was just coming straight back up so we knew that even as we played on it if we got any more rain, even if we managed to get rid of the surface water, it would eventually come back."