Crawley are heading for a clash with their local council over the state of the pitch at the Broadfield Stadium.

The Reds had to postpone their home game on Saturday with Halesowen because the council-owned venue was waterlogged.

Boss Billy Smith fears the poor playing surface could undermine the team's progress in the FA Cup and the Dr Martens premier division.

Crawley entertain Tiverton for their first round FA Cup replay tonight and with the hosts doing well in the Sussex Senior Cup and the League Cup too, Smith is worried about a fixture pile-up in the new year should the problem persist.

He said: "It is a major concern. If we had played on the pitch on Saturday it would have ruined it. There seems to be a problem with the drainage which I thought had been addressed in the summer.

"If we keep getting games called off at home then we'll have all sorts of problems in the new year with games coming thick and fast.

"The council have been good to us in the past but they are going to have to take some action. I remember when I was at Kingstonian we had a council-run ground which was great when it was put down but wasn't really looked after and it has been permanently scarred."

John Thraves, director of community services at Crawley Council, responded: "We had a tremendous amount of rain in the last week that put the drainage system under intolerable pressure.

"The rain just proved too much on that occasion and we were one of several grounds in the south east that fell victim to the weather."