Martin Allen was left frustrated by the decision to abandon Cheltenham Town’s FA Cup second-round tie at Morecambe on Saturday.

Referee David Foster called a halt due to fog with 25 minutes left and the tie poised at 1-1 – but Robins boss Allen felt he should have delayed the decision.

“The fog did come down a bit worse but when the referee came over to me I asked him for five more minutes,” said Allen.

“Ten minutes later the fog had lifted a bit and you could clearly see the other side of the pitch.

“I feel sorry for the supporters who have paid a lot of money to come up here and that is why we should have waited.

“The Morecambe supporters wanted to play on, we all did, so it would not have done any harm to have waited a bit. It was a no-brainer for me.

“The referee said he could not see from one side to the other but he could have waited for a few minutes. A lot of work has gone into this and we’ve now got to come up north again for another game.”

The sides will return to Christie Park tomorrow to try again with a home tie against Doncaster Rovers at stake, and the two sides have decided to cut admission prices by half.

Allen will hope the Robins pick up where they left off as they were on top when the game was abandoned, returning loan striker Barry Hayles scoring after 54 minutes to cancel out Rene Howe’s 15th-minute penalty.

“I wasn’t very happy with our first-half performance,” said Allen. “I asked them to step it up in no uncertain terms and we started to get it together in the last five minutes of the first half and in the second half we were terrific.

“We got the ball down and played and were very good. In FA Cup games there are always going to be spells when the opposition get on top, especially when you play away from home.

“It was a good goal from Barry Hayles but we had some chances in the first half as well.”

We had numerous corners and although we weren’t playing well we did create some chances that were not taken.

“We’ve had a lot of away games lately and it’s cost them a lot of money to come and watch us play.

“I think the supporters have been terrific and although we haven’t been winning games, I think they do recognise that the players have been committed and that apart from the Hereford game we’ve been doing alright and been hard to beat.

“They know I want to make more changes and the supporters have been very patient. I was disappointed for them today and that’s why I went over at the end and clapped every one of them.”

Allen was without striker Elvis Hammond (groin) and left-back Alan Wright (hamstring) but they may have a chance of playing tomorrow.

Cheltenham’s reserve clash with Yeovil this afternoon will go ahead with the Robins fielding their Under-18 side.