Torrential rain postpones England qualifier

He said: “I was rather hoping they’d close it as quickly as possible and do some work. At the moment the pitch is in a very poor condition, the water is lying on the surface and it’s going to need a lot of attention if it’s going to be playable [today].

“Of course the players are disappointed. Because when you’ve got a game in the evening you spend a long day preparing for it. So we’re all very unhappy about it but what can we do? These acts of God – no-one can decide whether it’s going to rain or not rain, we just have to live with the situation.”

Hodgson had picked a team that did not include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and featured Jermain Defoe in attack instead of Danny Welbeck, a side that the England manager said he was minded to stick for today’s re-organised game. He said: “I hope so, yes. You never know, people can fall ill but I’d chosen the team that I wanted to start the game and I have no intention of changing it unless someone falls ill in the meantime.”

The former England manager Graham Taylor described the organisation of the match as “like Monty Python” and added “If I were a fan, I’d be booing too.” Fifa regulation 19.7 dictates that any game called off because of adverse weather conditions has to be played within 24 hours.

At 7pm, the England goalkeeper coach Dave Watson had brought the three goalkeepers out to warm-up although it quickly became obvious that was impractical and they were called in. Hodgson and Neville inspected the pitch soon after that and England’s outfield players never came out. Poland’s players warmed-up for a while and then went back in.

A spokesman for the company that operate the stadium said: “It takes 15 minutes to close the roof, but we cannot do it in temperatures below zero, in high wind, or while it is wet. If we closed it while it was wet, the roof could fall. It would be dangerous. We're not able to make the decision to close the roof without the presence of the Fifa match delegate. He did not arrive at the stadium until 7pm, by which time it was raining."

Last night the Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi, delayed the kick-off until 9pm local time and then went back out for an inspection then. A final decision was then put back to 9.45pm and the game was finally postponed 11 minutes later.

Many English supporters at the game were angry at finding out the game was off via text messages from friends at home watching television coverage. Announcements in the stadium were late and vague. The England players did not come out onto the pitch to acknowledge the supporters, although the Club England managing director Adrian Bevington said there was no intention to be disrespectful.

Bevington said: “These are pretty unique circumstances. We had said to the players to get changed significantly earlier than when the game would be called off because we didn't think there was any chance of the match being played, but we didn't want it to look as if we'd made their decision for them. There's nothing but respect for those fans who have travelled all that way. No disrespect intended.”

Among the England fans was Warren Sadler, from Southend, who was part of a group of 12 supporters. He said: “We knew about this weather. That's why we've all brought coats. How could they not know? We're on a chartered flight with a group of 12, and it's probably cost £400 or so in total, plus the time off work that we've all taken. We were up at 3am to fly out, and we fly back at 3am on Wednesday morning [today], so them rearranging for the afternoon [today] is no good to us. We won't be here."

Richard Clark, a service manager from Nottingham, said: "This is the first time I can remember this happening. A game in a major Fifa competition in a stadium built for a competition this year being called off because of the weather. It's absolutely crazy."

The last two England internationals to be called off on the day were in October 1975 when fog in Bratislava meant that a European championships qualifier against the Czech Republic could not go ahead. It was played the following night when England lost 2-1. In 1979, fog at Wembley meant a European championship qualifier against Bulgaria had to be called off because of fog. England won 2-0 the following night.