The Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, said “we’ve got to take our game seriously” after their Women’s Super League match at home to Liverpool was abandoned after six minutes due to a frozen pitch.

Hayes said the lunchtime match at Kingsmeadow “should never have started” as she called for undersoil heating to be installed at WSL stadiums.

Heaters were deployed in an attempt to make the pitch playable, but the referee, Paul Howard, having consulted Hayes and the Liverpool manager, Matt Beard, took the two teams off shortly after kick-off.