The United squad was put through its paces on Saturday morning, in lieu of an afternoon game, with the country in the early stages of mourning the passing of the Queen.
On the reaction from the players and playing staff to the Harrogate postponement, Paul Simpson said: “We probably expected it. We prepared the same way, because we didn’t get the decision until after midday.
“We’d already had our team meeting early in the morning, so I’d named the team, we’d done all our final preparation, we then went out on the grass and did our match preparation as we would normally do.
“Then when I came back in I got the news that all the games had been called off. Although we fully expected it, we still prepared as if it was going to go on.
“We didn’t talk to the players about it being off until we got that decision. We then just had to change our plans – instead of travelling to Harrogate we ended up having a normal training session, which was a really good workout.”
“We basically had a game, three lots of 20 minutes where there were no stoppages,” he added. “It was total ball in play - if a ball went out we put it straight back in - so it was a good physical workout.
“I’ve got to say, there was some good quality in it as well. Now we’ve got the preparation going for Mansfield and we’re looking forward to going there.
“When games are called off in that way we have to just follow what the authorities decide. We can’t all kick up a stink. I watched the cricket yesterday where England’s cricketers were unhappy when they came off.
“Rules are rules, you have to follow it. If the authorities have made that decision, we just go with it. Whatever way they thought was the right way to show the respect to the Queen, I’m quite happy to go along with it. If that’s what they decided, then so be it.”