SOUTHEND United’s fans were left fuming by the timing of Saturday’s postponement at Rochdale.

Many of Blues fans were close to completing the 242 mile journey when the game was called off by referee Eddie Ilderton because of a waterlogged pitch.

And Ashley Lansley was among the supporters wondering why the decision could not have been made sooner.

“It was very disappointing and we’re all wondering why the game wasn’t called off earlier,” said the 20-year-old from Leigh.

“We were talking to Rochdale fans who told us the pitch was in a terrible state when the covers were taken off so it was awful it didn’t get called off until 12.30.”

And those sentiments were echoed by another Blues fan, Luke Sodeau.

“We were literally 10 minutes away from the ground when the decision was made and having woken up at 6am to leave I think it’s terrible,” said the Hockley based Sodeau, “We saw pictures of the pitch on Twitter and it looked even worse than ours so I don’t know why it took so long for the decision to be made.”

But Shrimpers supporter Danny Moss feels more should be done to help fans who travel long distances to matches that do not end up taking place.

“I think there really needs to be some sort of compensation for fans when the games they are travelling to are called off at such short notice,” said Moss.

“That’s £70 worth of petrol down the drain for us now and I don’t think that’s fair.

“More needs to be done to help the fans in situations like this.”