Marlow FC have been forced to apologise to the Southern League after their players failed to show for Saturday’s match against Ashford Town.

Only a handful of players turned up to Oak Tree Road on Saturday afternoon after the majority of the squad had contacted manager Mark Bartley to say they were unavailable.

The club were given until 3pm to try and resolve the situation before the match was postponed.

A spokesman for the club said: "Manager Mark Bartley was trying to make contact with the players who had previously been advised of their selection to establish their whereabouts but was unable to make any contact by telephone or received text replies of “not available”.

"Neither the club nor manager had been made aware of anything untoward prior to this time.

"The match officials and Ashford Town (Mx) officials were immediately apprised of the situation as was the Southern Football League.

"Time was given to see if the situation could be resolved but at 3pm with the situation unchanged Marlow FC confirmed that they were not in a position to fulfil the fixture which was consequently postponed.

"Both Marlow FC and Mark Bartley are trying to establish further details and so no further comment will be made at this stage.

"Marlow FC would like to offer their sincere apologies to the Southern Football League, Ashford Town (Mx), the match officials and all those who attended the ground or are affected or inconvenienced by this issue."