WITNEY Town FC were forced to abandon plans to stage the first-ever rugby league game at the Marriotts Stadium on Saturday - because they couldn't afford the goalposts.
Town were due to stage the top-flight under 21 game between the London Broncos and Salford Reds, but were told by Oxford Cavaliers, just three days before the match, that they would have to find the goalposts.
Town's commercial manager Dermot Gallagher approached Witney Rugby Club.
But he was told that their posts were concreted into the ground and to move them would be a difficult process, costing about £500.
They would have to hire a crane to extricate the posts before transporting them to their own stadium.
The posts would then have to be concreted into their pitch before going through exactly the same process to return them to the rugby club.
Town claim they couldn't afford this added cost and were left with no choice but to abandon the match.
"Whilst we gave our facilities for free, we can't afford to give them everything," said Gallagher.
Story date: Wednesday 19 May
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