The Latics home game against Brentford was cancelled at the last minute after referee Tony Bates declared the game off after describing some of the Boundary Park playing surface as being "like concrete." He arrived from Stoke-on-Trent at eleven o'clock and called a halt to procedings just an hour later after he could see no sign of conditions improving.
He said, "The pitch covers only offered protection to minus two degrees, and clearly it was a lot colder than that overnight. Parts of the pitch were like concrete. Players in the shaded areas would have needed moulded soles and those elsewhere studs, and I had to think about the safety of the players."
The Latics groundsman Lee Williams made every effort to get the game on and had put down frost covers on Friday but declared, "The overnight forecast was for minus two which the covers would have handled, but the temperature dropped to minus five. We took off the covers this morning and gave the pitch every chance to thaw out, but the area which is shaded by the main stand was hard. There was little likelihood of it thawing as the temperature in that area was only one degree at one o'clock."