EASTLEIGH’S friendly with AFC Wimbledon this afternoon has been called off due to the Londoners’ concerns about the new Silverlake Stadium pitch.

With the old pitch no longer fit for purpose, the ambitious National League club took the decision to replace it with a completely new one this week.

But though Eastleigh are fully satisfied that the new surface is perfectly safe and playable, representatives from League One outfit AFC Wimbledon cast an eye over it this morning and felt it was “unsafe.”

The Spitfires have since had the pitch inspected and will go ahead with tomorrow’s (4pm) charity match between Saints Legends and a Royal Navy select side – a fund-raiser for the Royal British Legion – which follows a family fun day (11am-3pm).

The Wimbledon match was due to be the first of four home friendlies against Football League opposition with Portsmouth, Newport County and Sheffield United to follow later this month.

A club statement explained: “As has been widely reported, the club took the decision to re-lay the pitch recently.

“We were advised there would be no issues in completing the work necessary and within in the time frame needed.

“The work has been completed to the standard required.

"The company contracted to do the work complete many of these projects each year to an extremely high level and their feeling is that our pitch has been completed in line with this standard to enable our game with AFC Wimbledon to proceed whilst giving us a much improved playing surface for the remainder of the season.

“Ahead of the game today, AFC Wimbledon representatives looked at the pitch this morning and took the view they were not happy to play on the pitch, taking the view that it is unsafe.

"We fully respect their decision and understand that player safety is paramount. However, we are confident that our pitch is playable and would have been passed fit had this been a National League or FA Cup fixture.

“We are pleased to confirm that we have had the pitch inspected in light of today’s events and tomorrow’s fixture will proceed despite the obvious disappointment of today.

“We would like to apologise to all the fans who were planning on attending the game but, had we felt the pitch was going to be unplayable at any stage, we would have communicated this earlier.

“The first-team players will report to training today which will take place on the pitch.

“The club will announce further details in the coming days regarding ticket arrangements. Please keep an eye on our social media outlets for further information.”

An AFC Wimbledon statement said: “Yesterday we discovered from a newspaper article that the Eastleigh pitch was being laid this week and would not be finished until the day before the game.

“As a result, we arranged to visit the ground early today to inspect the pitch.

"In our view the pitch was not suitable to play on and so the game has been called off. We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our fans, some of whom may already have set off to the game.

“To minimise the disruption to our pre-season schedule the team will return to our training ground for a session this afternoon.”