The St. Helens official made three inspections of the surface prior to announcing the postponement - a decision which left Blues boss Steve Bruce baffled to say the least.
At 2.10pm (25 minutes after the announcement that the game was off) Bruce said: "At 1pm I can understand where the referee is coming from. I can see that there's water lying on the pitch.
"The report from the met office then says that there's no more rain this afternoon. What the groundsman says is 'that if it stays dry for an hour this lot will be gone' that is true to its word and thats whats happened.
"The referee has made a decision at 1.45pm to say that the gates have got to be opened and if there is more rain it becomes a lottery.
"We're going out there training on it - and thats not trying to be clever - if it was dangerous or I thought it was unplayable then I wouldn't take my players out there, thats for sure.
"We're training because we've got to do something. We've got to try and prepare again for a game on Friday."