Tony Mowbray on ‘frustrating’ delay in deciding whether Blackburn-Millwall went ahead

Tony Mowbray reckoned Millwall’s game against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park could have been postponed a lot earlier in the day.

The Lions fixture against Rovers was called off after the referee decided the pitch was unsafe to play on following a 2.15pm inspection.

Mowbray told Rovers TV: “Frustrating, really frustrating – particularly so late in the day. There were already people inside the stadium.

“If it had been called off two hours prior to kick off you could understand it. Two hours prior you could have called it off without any problems because the pitch had a few inches of snow on it.

“The groundstaff decided when the referee came to start clearing the lines and then we said we’d give it a chance to have a go and sort of attack the pitch by trying to get the snow off.

“I do think the referee thought early on that it was going to be difficult because there was a lot of water on the pitch from the snow and when we moved it off, the grass was unstable when you walked on it.

“What the pitch might have looked like at the end of the game is one thing. I said to the referee it’s his responsibility, he had to make the call.

“We both as managers, Gary Rowett stood in the office with the referee and we both wanted to play the football match. But you have to respect the officials.

“They don’t travel a long way and want to call the game off. It’s their job, they want to play as well. He’s made his decision with a lot of thought. He gave it an hour to see what it looked like in an hour after the first inspection.

“We have to respect his responsibility, it’s for the safety and welfare of the footballers and he felt it wasn’t safe to play the football match so we have to abide by that.”