OFF-the-field plumbing issues landed AFC Ludlow in hot water as last Saturday's match was postponed.

Despite a perfectly playable pitch and a fully fit squad for the first time this season, AFC Ludlow had to sit out their scheduled match with Penncroft after club officials discovered they had no hot water.

The Shropshire side called their opponents, who at the time were in Bridgnorth, and told them of the situation, with Penncroft deciding to head back home.

"It's so frustrating," said AFC Ludlow boss Dave Cooper.

"We had a pitch inspection at 10.30am and everything was fine. The pitch was playable.

"We had everyone apart from Nathan Hodge available to play, which doesn't happen very often.

"So everything was good to go. The pitch was perfect for a game of football.

"Then, about 11.50am, I was told we had no hot water."

Cooper said he phoned the Penncroft manager who told him they were not prepared to travel any further knowing there was no hot water, and headed back to Wolverhampton.

He said had the visitors have arrived at the ground, they may have charged AFC Ludlow petrol money for the wasted journey.

"We can't blame them for not wanting to come down here," said Cooper.

"We were very honest with them. We could have told them after the match but we wouldn't do that.

"If it was me we would have carried on and played the match.

"We really fancied it on Saturday to be honest."

Cooper said his side's mid-season report would probably read 'could do better'. His side sit second having recorded two wins against table-toppers Bromyard, although they have lost to the bottom two sides.

"We have done alright in patches but we're just not consistent enough," he said.

"We have beaten Bromyard home and away, the only team to have done that.

"But we've also lost to the bottom two. Our last four games have been draws too.

"So we could do better. We need to cut out the silly errors which have seen us concede late equalisers recently.

"It's the draws that are killing us."

This Saturday, AFC Ludlow travel to Shenstone Pathfinders who currently sit in tenth position.

Top of the table Bromyard, who lie eight points ahead of Ludlow having won 11 of their 16 games, are without a league game giving the Shropshire side the incentive of closing the gap to five points with a win.

Cooper says one advantage of recent postponements is that later in the season his side won't have a break in fixtures as an earmarked four week gap in games will now be filled by ones that have been postponed.

After Shenstone, AFC Ludlow travel to Trysull before entertaining Wem Town at the end of the month.