Felixstowe & Walton boss Kevin O’Donnell paid tribute to all the volunteers who helped ensure that the Seasiders’ fixture against Newmarket Town went ahead on Friday night despite the bad weather.

Less than 12 hours before kick-off, Felixstowe’s Goldstar Ground pitch looked in serious trouble following some heavy overnight rain on Thursday.

However, determined that the game would go ahead, the club and its volunteers rallied as they took to Dellwood Avenue armed with forks, spades and wellies to miraculously transform the pitch from a series of puddles and mud to a nearly perfect flat, green and water-free surface.

“You’ve got to absolutely take your hat off to everyone who was involved,” said O’Donnell.

“There were volunteers that came up this morning to sponge the water off the pitch and get everything set and when I saw the pictures of it this morning, I think a lot of people, me included, said ‘yeah the game is never going to be on, it’s going to be in doubt’.

“But they’ve done an absolutely fantastic job to get it on and hopefully the result tonight has acted as a bit of a reward to them for doing that as well.”

Felixstowe certainly rewarded the volunteers’ efforts on the field as they took full advantage from the off with a brace from Jordy Matthews, as well as goals from Danny Thrower, Miles Powell, Ben Cranfield and Tom Dew, seeing them canter into a 6-2 lead in a first-half display that simply washed opponents Newmarket away.

“If I’m honest I wasn’t expecting that kind of start to the first half,” said O’Donnell.

“We were up for the game and did have a chat beforehand about what we needed to do, especially on the back of Tuesday where decision making wasn’t as good as it could’ve been and tonight was that opportunity to go out and make amends for that.

“It was definitely an excellent win for us and had you said before the game that the score would’ve been 6-2 at half time, I would’ve bitten your hand off.”

Ironically, all the goals were scored in the first period as the game rather fizzled out in the goalless second period.

“I think the second half definitely wasn’t the half we wanted to have but I think the problem is when you’ve got that kind of a lead at half-time, it’s very difficult to keep that going,” added O’Donnell.

“I think the motivation was there to drive on again but I don’t know if complacency kicked in or the game just fizzled out.

“Obviously, had the scoreline been a bit closer, it may have been different.”

The Seasiders saw their efforts further rewarded as 135 spectators came through the gate for an experimental Friday night fixture – Felixstowe’s largest crowd of the season so far.