Barrow AFC's match with Dover Athletic being postponed last Saturday came as a huge disappointment to chairman Paul Hornby, as it prevented an afternoon that would have brought huge benefits to the club.

With the Bluebirds in superb form in the National League, they were regarded as favourites to defeat the Whites under sunny skies, which would have equalled the club record of eight consecutive league wins.

But it was the off-field consequences of the match being called off at 1:45pm that will bite hard, as instead of admiring the intake of money, AFC are now counting the costs.

A crowd in excess of 3,000 was anticipated at Holker Street, with the club reducing adult ticket prices to just £9, admitting under-16s for free as part of Non-League Day and laying on increased provisions as a result.

Hornby said: "It's hard to put into words. There's a lot of emotion going around, we're just devastated.

"It was the perfect storm - the winning run we're on, the weather, it was national Non-League Day, there were free kids tickets.

"We would have had a crowd of over 3,000 in here today, with a chance of breaking a record that had stood for 114 years.

"These things don't happen every day, you can't replicate what we were going to do today and it's the circumstances as well. The circumstance is - saying the very words- setting off from Dover to Barrow at half-past-nine is complete lunacy."

Dover will probably have no choice but to stay overnight at Barrow when they eventually do make the trip to Holker Street, as it will most likely be on a Tuesday night, which will mean AFC will do well to get half the crowd they were expecting.

A day that was meant to be a showcase for non-League football ended with a lot of red faces, as three games in the National League ended up being postponed due to the rail disruption caused by a fatality near Milton Keynes.

Board member Sid Blain, who is a director at the National League, also questioned why Dover would choose to make the long journey from Kent with no margin for error, timewise.

He said: "It is up to individual clubs to make their own arrangements, but as a club I'm sure we would not do what they did, which is travel from Dover on the day of the game."