There was a mixture of relief and frustration for Dover manager Chris Kinnear after Dover’s Vanarama National match at Macclesfield was abandoned, while the Whites were trailing 1-0.

He admitted “we didn’t play well first half, but you never know, we could have gone on to win 4-1.  We’ve had a lot of hard games recently and maybe there was some tiredness in there, but a lot was down to them (Macclesfield).  They made it difficult and they are a very good side.  Now it has gone, we know we didn’t do very well, but that is the only bad 45 minutes we’ve had in the last four or five games.”

With thick fog hanging over the Moss Rose stadium like a shroud, the football on the pitch was certainly brighter than the conditions.  Dover had a couple of early chances, a Richard Orlu bicycle kick that hit a defender from Jamie Grimes’ knockdown and a Ricky Miller cross from the left that flashed across the face of goal with none of his teammates able to keep up with his run to apply a finish.

Macclesfield have a reputation for flowing football though, and presented Dover with threats from both flanks.  The Silkmen’s leading scorer Chris Holroyd had an early shot on the turn that was straight at Steve Arnold from the edge of the box.  Arnold then had to be alert to tip over a header from Danny Whitaker from a Jake Mackreth cross after his defence had struggled to clear Whitaker’s initial ball into the box.

The clearest chance of the early period came on 18, as Holroyd, unmarked, connected with a Mackreth cross from the right, and Arnold flung himself to his left to push away the shot with an incredible reaction save; the keeper couldn’t have known that the offside flag had already been raised though.

The Dover defence, with Richard Orlu being drawn out to man-mark Whitaker, was looking unusually vulnerable.  Andy Halls drove a dangerous cross from the right through the White’s penalty area where none of the three blue shirts couldn’t react quickly enough.

Macclesfield took the lead on the half-hour as Dover failed to cope with a direct run from the left side by Danny Rowe.  The winger picked the ball up just inside the Dover half and ran unchallenged to the edge of the Dover box.  A quick 1-2 with Holroyd put the ball back into Rowe’s path and his left foot shot slightly wrong-footed Arnold, whose hand wasn’t strong enough to keep the shot out of the bottom left corner.

Arnold was certainly the busier of the two goalkeepers, saving low to his right from Holroyd after the forward had burst upfield from halfway. Arnold then had to react quickly to smother the ball to his left after Mitch Hancox’s low cross from the left byline had deflected towards the net off Tyrone Sterling’s leg.

Jim Stevenson had a couple of half-chances for Dover, who were struggling to claim any territory in the Macclesfield half; a soft shot and a header that were both held by Craig Ross in the Silkmen’s goal.  Holroyd though continued to show Macclesfield’s threat with a fierce shot from the edge of the box that shaved the right hand post.

The weather conditions worsened for the start of the second half to the point where a Macclesfield player went to ground on halfway with both benches wondering what had happened.  Soon after, Mr Coggins came across to talk to his fourth official, along with the two managers, and the decision was made to suspend play; although the initial message relayed was that the game had been abandoned.

Fifteen minutes later and the abandonment had been confirmed, ironically at a time when the fog was at its lightest since a good 90 minutes prior to kick-off.Dover goalkeeper, Steve Arnold, admitted that he had been unable to see much beyond the halfway line from his goalmouth.  Kinnear, having joked that he hadn’t been able to influence a referee in his 30 years as a manager, added “we had nothing to do with the game being called off, we had no influence at all, and wouldn’t expect to.  The referee has made a decision and we’ll have to come back now on a Tuesday, but that is professional football.”

“He (the referee) had already given it 15 minutes, and hindsight is a wonderful thing.  As he brought the lads off there was no way that we should have been playing and it was possible that conditions could have got worse.  Obviously it hasn’t and that is hindsight.  You’ve got to feel for the referee but he couldn’t know that at the time.”

(abandoned after 53 minutes, Macclesfield leading 1-0)

MACCLESFIELD TOWN: 13- Craig Ross, 2- Andy Halls, 5- George Pilkington, 6- John McCombe, 3- David Fitzpatrick; 7- Jack Mackreth, 8- Paul Lewis, 16- Mitch Hancox, 23- Danny Whitaker; 9- Chris Holroyd, 11- Danny Rowe.

Subs not used: 24- Ryan Boot, 4- Neill Byrne, 10- Jack Sampson, 14- Kingsley James, 20- Richard Brodie

Goal: Danny Rowe 30

DOVER ATHLETIC: 18- Steve Arnold; 2- Sam Magri, 6- Richard Orlu, 15- Jamie Grimes, 16- Tyrone Sterling, 3- Aswad Thomas; 8- Jim Stevenson, 21- Sammy Moore; 17- Moses Emmanuel, 25- Ross Lafayette, 9- Ricky Miller.

Subs not used: 1- Mitch Walker, 4- Chris Kinnear jr, 10- Tyrone Marsh, 11- Mitchell Pinnock, 23- Jack Parkinson.

Attendance: not announced

Referee: Mr Antony Coggins
Assistants: Mr Mark Cunliffe and Mr Leigh Doughty
Fourth Official: Mr David Croft