Darlington manager Gary Bennett denied he had tried to influence the referee's decision to call off Saturday's game at Exeter City as Quakers' home game with Rochdale met with a similar fate yesterday afternoon.

After Saturday's referee Rob Harris announced he had called the game off at 12.30 because of a frozen pitch, Exeter City informed telephone callers that the game had "been postponed by the referee at Darlington's request."

Bennett furiously denied the claim after wasting two days on a 700-mile round trip to the south west.

"The decision had nothing to do with me," he said. "The decision was entirely the referee's.

"When he arrived at the ground, he called me and Noel Blake across, and he made sure we heard what the Met office were telling him when he contacted them for a weather forecast.

"If the referee had said we had to play, then we would have played. We didn't want the game off after travelling all that way, that's for sure."

As soon as referee Harris called the game off, he said: "The match was postponed on the grounds of safety, both for players and match officials in that shaded area."

Bennett believed Exeter should have called in a local referee on Saturday morning to stop away supporters from completing their journey.

"Exeter should have brought in a local referee at 10am to inspect the pitch and decide if it was playable, instead of waiting for the match referee to arrive," said Bennett. "There was no way it was going to be on."

On Thursday and Friday Exeter said that the sun had thawed the frost on the pitch and there were no plans for an inspection. On Friday, a spokesman said they had spoken with referee Harris by phone and described the conditions to him, and he was happy with the report. He indicated he wouldn't travel from his Oxford home until Saturday.

On Saturday, Exeter announced at 9.30am that there had been some frost, but the pitch was "soft underneath" and there were no plans for an inspection.

The referee arrived at noon, and immediately inspected the frozen part of the pitch in the shade of the new stand.

The Football League are understood to be looking at the circumstances of the postponement. They introduced a procedure three seasons ago in which either the match referee or a local referee could carry out an inspection the day before a game at the request of the home club, and again on the morning of the game if necessary. The home club can request the match referee to stop overnight if necessary.

Under League rules, Quakers can now claim their travel and hotel expenses - believed to be £2,500 - from the gate receipts when the game is re-arranged.

Darlington's PR director Luke Raine: "We will try and think of a way to recompense our supporters."

After Raine spoke with Exeter at around 2pm, the club then told callers that the "referee had called the game off because part of the pitch was frozen."

Saturday's episode is the latest in a saga of postponements involving Darlington and Exeter. Two seasons ago, Exeter made three journeys to Feethams, only for the game to be postponed on each occasion.

A blank New Year for the Quakers was completed yesterday when today's scheduled home game with Rochdale was called off due to a frozen pitch at Feethams.

Fans have wondered why the hot air cover was not used, but Raine said: "The cover was damaged by the high winds a month or so ago."

The Quakers' next game is on January 9 at York City in the LDV Vans Trophy