Exeter City have apologised to Barnsley staff and fans for the late postponement of Tuesday's game, committing to reviewing their protocols in the future.

The match was called off at 4.45pm, three hours before the scheduled kick-off time, after hundreds of Reds fans had travelled.

The statement read: "Although EFL protocols were followed regarding the pitch inspection, the decision was clearly not made early enough for those fans who had to travel a long distance. We had closely monitored the forecast and expected the pitch to be playable, with predicted temperatures remaining above freezing. However, this was not the case and the referee who inspected the pitch deemed that small parts of it were unplayable, leading to the postponement of the fixture.

"Unfortunately, that pitch inspection did not take place until 4pm. This was partly because the referee was delayed, but even if he had arrived at the expected time, it was clearly too late for the fans who had travelled from Barnsley. We commit to reviewing and make changes to our inspection protocols and will do all we can to prevent this situation from occurring again in the future. We have also reviewed the communication from the club around this issue and also commit to improving this.

"Being one of the clubs with the furthest to travel in the league, we understand the cost and time implications of this, and we sincerely apologise again to the Barnsley squad and fans who made the trip to Exeter.

"The club will do everything it can to make Barnsley FC supporters as welcome and as comfortable as possible when they return in the near future. We were pleased to supply free pies and pasties to the Barnsley fans who were at the ground on Tuesday. In addition to this, we also gave any excess food to St Petrock’s homeless charity, something that we do after every home match."