IT WAS the rain in midweek and by the weekend, it was snow that was wreaking havoc with Mansfield Town's promotion charge.
The bus was turned around near Stoke when the game at Wrexham was called off and then on Saturday, the heavy snowfall meant there wasn't a chance Mansfield's game would go ahead against Macclesfield.
An earlier call for supporters to come and clear the pitch was called off as an overnight downpour left more than five inches of the white stuff on the frost covers and in the stands.
But while the Stags endured another day of no action, elsewhere Kidderminster were moving three points clear at the top with a ninth successive win.
The Stags have three games in hand and are two points ahead of Wrexham, with a game in hand, and to play them twice.
It is still in their hands and with Newport losing again on Saturday, the title chase, realistically, has been narrowed down to three teams.
But with the snow going nowhere and temperatures barely expected to rise above zero in the next couple of days, tomorrow night's home match with Nuneaton remains a major doubt.
And that is the problem. With the league due to end on April 20 and no word yet on an extension, the Stags have to fit them in.
They face an Easter Monday game and a trip to Wrexham on the Thursday, sandwiched between two weekend matches and they now have to factor in a game with Macclesfield on a Thursday evening.
It will be relentless but, given the set-up of the team, manager Paul Cox now has like for like replacements when he has to rotate his team.
In the hole, Ben Hutchinson can replace Lee Stevenson, in the middle of the park he has Adam Chapman, Adam Murray, Anthony Howell and Chris Clements all vying for two spots.
He has central defenders in abundance and Ritchie Sutton and John Thompson to slip in to the full-back roles, not to mention winger Colin Daniel who can also play left-back.
All have played a part this season and if called upon, they should find it easy to fit into the 4-4-1-1 set-up that has seen them win 13 of their last 14 Blue Square Bet Premier matches.
Should tomorrow night's game succumb to the weather, it will be a head scratcher for Cox and his players.
But, Kidderminster aside, Wrexham have a similar backlog, as do many others in the league.
Since the turn of the year, the Stags have proved that two games a week suits them fine, hence the stunning run.
Now they have to prove they are capable of playing three to four matches a week during the run-in if they are to nail down top spot and the league title.
