Town's U18s league fixture against Huddersfield Town at Playford Road was abandoned after just 19 minutes on Saturday morning as the overnight snowfall that had covered the pitch continued following kick-off.
Groundsmen and staff from the Town academy, including head of coaching and player development Bryan Klug, had worked to clear the snow and enable the officials to see the pitch markings but after a couple of strong challenges early on - Town captain Ross Marshall received a yellow card for a foul on visiting left-back Ben Jackson - referee Graham Swanton spoke with coaches Alan Lee and Leigh Bromby and called the match off.
Town had named central midfielder Ryley Scott and striker Tyreece Simpson in their starting XI, both of whom we understand are currently on trial at Playford Road.
Scott has most recently been with West Ham's academy set-up after joining them from Ryan FC, while Simpson was part of the Norfolk-based Langley School side that reached the national final of the ESFA Playstation Small Schools’ Trophy last year.
The young Blues are facing a fixture backlog going into the final weeks of the season with last week’s match at Leeds also having been postponed.
The away match against Bristol City which was postponed earlier in the month has been rearranged for Thursday 3rd May.
U18s: Ware, Ronan, Smith, Scott, Marshall, Vega, Dobra, Foudil, Simpson, Knight, Hughes. Unused: Barley, Egan, Cahill, Ogunmekan, Henry.
#itfc U18 league fixture against #htafc abandoned after 19 minutes this morning due to the snow â„ï¸ pic.twitter.com/NbBeLbjCBj– James Ager (@JamesAger91) March 17, 2018
ðŸ"· A few shots from this morning's #itfc U18 game with #htafc which was abandoned after just 19 minutes with the score still at 0-0 âš½ï¸ pic.twitter.com/Bry88AP0Qc– James Ager (@JamesAger91) March 17, 2018