Brightwell frustrated by weather

Brightwell played and managed Macclesfield Town

Port Vale assistant manager Ian Brightwell admitted it was the right decision to call off their match against Macclesfield on Saturday.

Brightwell told BBC Radio Stoke: "I was at the ground representing the club and we'd have had a softer surface if we'd played on the car park outside.

"The referee looked at it, never even put his boots on, and called it off."

Vale are yet to play in 2009, after their game with Exeter on 3 January was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

Brightwell added: "We want to play because we haven't played for a couple of weeks, but then we've got some unresolved contracts and some suspensions too.

"We've got mixed feelings about it, but you want to be playing in my opinion."

Vale terminated the contract of striker Luke Rodgers by mutual consent on Friday, and Brightwell said it was sad to see him go.

"Luke's a good player but he decided he wanted to move away, so that's disappointing. You never want to lose good players."

"It will release a little bit of money for us to bring in new players, or allow us to keep hold of the players we've got on loan at the moment."