Sutton United’s women’s team abruptly postponed their scheduled match at Ebbsfleet United on Sunday amid mounting anger over their signing of goalkeeper Blair Hamilton, a biological male.

The notice of postponement was issued so late, within three hours of the scheduled 2pm kick-off time, that Ebbsfleet ended up donating their matchday supplies to a local food bank. Sutton offered no explanation for their failure to assemble a team, but it is understood that the cancellation was related to increasing disquiet about Hamilton’s involvement and its implications for sporting fairness.

Within hours of Telegraph Sport reporting Hamilton’s controversial call-up by Lucy Clark, Sutton Women’s transgender manager, the club sent an email to Ebbsfleet, at 11.12am, confirming that they had been unable to put a team together but offered no reasons. Parents of several players in the London & South East Premier Division, in which Sutton compete, have privately expressed unease about a player who has the physiological advantages conveyed by male puberty competing in women’s football.

The last-minute decision to withdraw from the game was not well received by Damian Irvine, Ebbsfleet’s chief executive. He wrote: “Very disappointed to be advised this by Sutton United Women. A full hour later, they’ve advised their own fans so I’m so sorry for those planning on setting off. We do our best to promote and support the sport, but this doesn’t help.”

Sharron Davies, who has received significant correspondence from people concerned about a biologically male goalkeeper taking the place of a woman, argued that the furore was symptomatic of a wider problem. “I’ve received so many emails from distressed parents of young female footballers who feel their clubs and their association have abandoned them,” she said. “I’m heartbroken about the injustice being handed out to our young female athletes.”

Last November, four teams in a Sheffield women’s league boycotted matches against a side who fielded a transgender player accused of causing a season-ending injury to an opponent. That episode sparked a fierce backlash, with more than 70 MPs and members of the House of Lords demanding urgent action to protect female players from the injury risks of competing against those with retained male advantage.

The presence of Hamilton in the women’s game has drawn protests during their previous spells for Hastings United and England Universities. Despite this, Clark, 51, the world’s first transgender referee, signed the 34-year-old.She has shown little compunction about making such choices, and said, in 2022: “At some point we will field a team solely of trans women for the first time in history. How good is that?”

Telegraph Sport has approached Sutton United for a response.