Town's FA Youth Cup fifth round tie against Watford was abandoned at 0-0 with just two minutes left on the clock due to an increasingly waterlogged pitch. Referee Matthew McLaughlin held two pitch inspections before the game but despite torrential rain was happy for the game to start.

The rain continued to fall consistently throughout the match in which the Blues found themselves pegged back by the Hornets for the most part with Lewis Ward the busier keeper.

Quality football was very difficult with players from both sides making error after error as the ball either stuck in the mud or sped away off the surface water.

With the game seeming destined for half an hour of extra-time and with only two minutes left to play, the referee grabbed the ball, signalled that the game was over and walked off, leaving behind him two confused teams and around 400 similarly bemused supporters.

McLaughlin's decision was presumably aimed at making sure the match is replayed at Portman Road rather than at Watford. FA Youth Cup rules state that a game which is abandoned in the 90 minutes should be played at the original venue, but that a match which has entered extra-time is replayed at the away team's ground.

The conditions had made the game a farce and in the end served only to turn Town groundsman Alan Ferguson's usually pristine turf into a quagmire which may take some time for him to return to its previous state.

U18s: Ward, Hyam, Dunbar, Daniels (Clemo 67), Eastman, Ainsley, Clark, Cawley, Wickham, Murray, Lambe. Unused: McLoughlin, Griffiths, Brandon.

Photo: Action Images

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