Early postponement was best, say Millers

ROTHERHAM United say the early postponement of tomorrow’s match at Gillingham was in the best interests of everyone.

With the Priestfield Stadium and surrounding roads under a foot of snow and no prospect of a thaw, the decision was made to call off the game yesterday morning with the full backing of the Football League.

And the ruling sat well with the Millers, who were due to travel down to Kent today for an overnight stay.

Chief operating officer Paul Douglas said: “While both ourselves and Gillingham wanted to play, sometimes common sense has to prevail.

“The Kent area was under a foot a snow with more forecast, and temperatures of minus seven are predicted for tonight.

“It was clear the ground was not going to be fit and that’s before you even start to consider the problems of travelling down there.

“From our point of view we have to consider the travelling supporters and our own travel and hotel arrangements.

“There are cancellation charges to think about and issues for Gillingham as regards policing arrangements and catering and staffing and so on.

“If the match had been 20 or 50 miles away then the decision could have been left until 11 o’clock on a Saturday morning but in this case it was better to make it sooner.”

The call-off means the Millers face a second successive blank weekend, having had no match last Saturday due to their first-round exit from the FA Cup.