Forest Green Rovers' match with Chester City tonight has been called off after the cash-strapped club's players refused to get on the team bus.

The game was postponed at 1711 GMT, two and a half hours before kick-off, after Forest Green received a call saying that City could not fulfil the fixture.

Crisis club Chester's players had gone unpaid for three months until receiving a week's salary prior to last weekend's home defeat by Ebbsfleet.

A statement on the Rovers website read: "Due to circumstances beyond our control, the club was notified at 5.11pm that this evening's Blue Square Premier fixture against Chester City has been called off.

"The club are taking steps to liaise with all our usual media contacts to notify them of the circumstances, however we would like to take this opportunity to apologise to all our sponsors and supporters for the late cancellation."