Moors’ National League North fixture against Chester was abandoned just short of the hour mark after a huge downpour at The Brewery Field.
An early morning pitch inspection had passed the playing surface fit for action and the game got underway with no problems and Chester took a stranglehold on proceedings.
Graeme Lee’s men had opened the game the stronger of the two sides, with Rob Ramshaw’s effort having to be plucked out of the air, courtesy of a brilliant save from George Murray-Jones inside the opening 60 seconds.
Matty Dolan almost put Moors ahead in emphatic fashion when he whipped a free-kick goalwards, only for his strike to smash off the crossbar.
Chester’s first chance of the game arrived through Pat Jones, who found space on the edge of the area and fired on goal. His curled effort looked destined for the bottom left corner, but a good save from Bobby Jones denied the number 18.
The visitors opened the scoring on the 15-minute mark, when an inviting ball flashed across the face of goal and found Dylan Mottley-Henry, who prodded home from close range.
The Seals came forward again six minutes later through Pat Jones. His ball went all the way across the goal and somehow managed to miss out his teammates in the penalty area.
Murray-Jones was called to action in quick succession as he had to claim Ramshaw’s curled effort, before punching Corey McKeown’s cross away from danger.
Calum McIntyre’s men got their second of the game with 11 minutes of the first half remaining. Pat Jones got in behind the Moors defence before wrong footing Bobby Jones and slotting home into the bottom right corner.
The conditions worsened as half time progressed, with the rain continuing to pour down onto the already soaked pitch. Nevertheless, the second half kicked off, with Moors trailing.
Tom Pugh tried to get a goal back within the first minute of the restart, only to see his deflected effort claimed by the Chester goalkeeper.
Things went from bad to worse for Moors as Dolan was shown a second yellow card and was subsequently sent off in the 53rd minute. The midfielder seemed to slip as he went to control the ball in the poor conditions but his challenge was penalised with a second booking.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the referee paused the game due to the worsening conditions and its effect on play, putting a 10-minute suspension in place to assess the next steps.
Despite the suspension, after testing the ball’s bounce on the pitch, the referee was left with no other choice than to abandon the fixture on the 56th minute with no real hope of the rain easing.
Full Time: Moors 0 Chester 2 (game abandoned on 66 minutes)
Moors: Jones, Pollock, Rowe, Beals, McKeown, Dolan, Pugh, Hill, Ramshaw, Mondal, Taylor.
Subs not used: Johnson, Luck, Kouyate, Green, Docherty, Atkinson.
Sent-off: Dolan (53).
Chester: Murray-Jones, K Roberts, Leak, Carson, Kelly-Evans, P Jones, Leigh, Bainbridge, Woods, Mottley-Henry, Peers.
Subs not used: Davies, Weeks, J Jones, Murray, Shrimpton, Shorrock, F Roberts.
Referee: John Mulligan
Attendance: 1,084