General manager of football operations Lee O’Neill says it wasn’t viable for the Blues to stay overnight in Shrewsbury and play today’s postponed game against the Shrews tomorrow, an idea which Town manager Paul Lambert and his assistant Stuart Taylor suggested.

The match at Montgomery Waters Meadow was called off by referee Lee Swabey just before 2pm due to frozen patches on the pitch which were deemed a danger to players.

“First of all, we are obviously very frustrated that we have travelled all the way down to Shrewsbury only for the game to be called off an hour before kick-off,” O’Neill told the club website.

“Once we were told it was off, it was Paul and Stuart who brought up the idea of staying over and playing tomorrow.

“We have got fixtures piling up and the last thing we needed was the game to be postponed so we looked at the possibility of playing on Sunday and if we had been in ‘normal’ times, then I think it may have happened.

“But we’re not in normal times, are we? We are living with the restrictions of Covid. The hotel we stayed in on Friday opened up especially for us, brought in staff and food especially for us. It wasn’t possible to have that arrangement at such short notice for tonight.

“The weather is still freezing all over the country and while it’s forecasted to improve tomorrow, there are no guarantees that the pitch would have been fine.

“So we had no hotel to stay in, no guarantees of the pitch being playable and we would have gone into the game with the players not having trained for two days.

“We spoke about it as a group but Paul understood the reasons why the only viable thing to do was to turn the bus around and go home.

“In hindsight, it would have been better if, knowing the weather forecast, we had moved the game to Sunday in the first place.

“We could have travelled down today but Shrewsbury were confident the game would go ahead. Like I say, it’s been a frustrating day!”

No new date has yet been set for the match but with both club’s fixture list already very full it won’t take place until April at the earliest.

Meanwhile, former Blues winger Danny Rowe, 28, has joined Burton Albion and made his debut as an 88th-minute sub in their 2-0 victory at Northampton today.

Rowe, who has joined the Brewers on a deal to the end of the season, was released by Town at the end of 2019/20.

Photo: TWTD

Dissboyitfc added 11:41 - Feb 14 And if you want to refer back to the 70's , I have a sneaky feeling this game rightly or wrongly would have gone ahead!
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Essexipswichboy added 12:16 - Feb 14 My garden is still frozen today.....so let's be honest If you got a blame thing ....I believe Shrewsbury at fault for this Probably because we nicked their sh** manager not so long ago Anyway I was hoping they would get beat ....as I'm sure that really would have been the end of shambert
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BluedanW added 12:22 - Feb 14 Paul Lambert the most clueless individual i have ever heard. "in normal situations it could of happened" How many games have ever been played thr day after a postponement? The only reason it was an option to play the day after was because of the extraordinary times we live in as no fans attend.
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dirtydingusmagee added 12:29 - Feb 14 i never lost a wink of sleep over this last night.
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Bert added 13:05 - Feb 14 A poor effort by Shrewsbury to protect the pitch so why would any team want to hang around for a second night with no guarantee that “certain parts of the pitch” would now be ok ? On balance the right decision by the club.
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ShropshireBluenago09 added 14:12 - Feb 14 Lambert bottled it. Shrews are on top form. O'Neil “down to Shrewsbury...” lol
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dirtydingusmagee added 16:17 - Feb 14 Well the player sent out to make a statement on Monday will be able to tell us about the coach journey, instead of the usual crap. That at least should be interesting as long as they werent asleep .
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LWNR2013 added 17:28 - Feb 14 Was it in the 70s when they always beat us?
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brendenward35 added 17:30 - Feb 14 Get real.people hotels can't just get in staff most of their staff have a been layed off they can't just ask them to come in. Players also have families kids already away Friday night so don't think they would be happy a 2nd night out. Pop to Boots and get meal deals lol very good. No guarantee pitch would have been playable today.
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blueboy1981 added 20:28 - Feb 14 As a Club in the lowest League position since 1956, we are obviously not very good anymore at Football .... as the above proves. But what we do lead the field at is making excuse, after excuse, after excuse - and not just from the Club itself - but many of the Supporters / Followers too. Plenty of evidence of that too in above posts. Doomed my Dear Watson - Doomed !!!

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Dissboyitfc added 07:20 - Feb 15 Blueboy... a painful post to read but spot on....
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Razor added 10:24 - Feb 15 Who is O"neill anway-----what qualifications does he have to run this football club? Get Derek Bowden back as I believe he has now left Essex. Didnt Wigan change there game from Sat to Sunday----why was it beyond us?
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Razor added 10:24 - Feb 15 Who is O"neill anway-----what qualifications does he have to run this football club? Get Derek Bowden back as I believe he has now left Essex. Didnt Wigan change there game from Sat to Sunday----why was it beyond us?
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istanblue added 19:30 - Feb 15 O'Neill you are not viable. #PELeeOut
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Texastom added 19:48 - Feb 15 I assume the Hotel they stayed at Friday night which especially opened and sanitised for ITFC wasn't available?? Seems like the obvious option? Having said that we aren't talking about a ‘can do' Club. O'Neil is a fool.
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