Earlier in the season, Blackburn were leading Ipswich Town when the match was abandoned with 10 minutes remaining. Despite the efforts of the ground staff, the match was canceled and caused a huge controversy.
Blackburn felt that victory should have been awarded given their advantage at the break and the fact that Ipswich were reduced to 10 men.
However, the EFL ruled that a full replay was the only logical course of action. Mr Blackburn said in a statement that he was “extremely disappointed” with the outcome and vowed to consider appealing the decision.
But nothing happened and the rescheduled game took place earlier this week, with Ipswich snatching a draw with a late goal in stoppage time.
Blackburn will face similar complaints regarding their withdrawal from Wednesday’s game. By ruling that a replay of the game against Ipswich was necessary, the EFL set a precedent that it must follow this time as well.
League regulations state that any game lasting less than 90 minutes may be counted as a completed game or ordered to be replayed in whole or in part, regardless of any conditions established by the Board of Directors.
However, the FA Regulations state that “If a match is not played or is canceled due to reasons beyond the control of either club, all matches should be played on a day mutually agreed by both clubs and approved by the competition.”
As a result, a replay of Saturday’s match will almost certainly be ordered, regardless of whether there are any complaints on Blackburn’s part.
After the Ipswich match was called off, Blackburn’s ground manager Trevor Wilkin explained that the pitch could not withstand that level of rain.
“As the days went by, it got heavier and heavier,” he told RoversTV. “It just reached a saturation point where it physically couldn’t take in any more water.
“We got the rainfall figures for the next day and we had over 77 milliliters of rain, which is over 3 inches, so when you imagine 3 inches of water falling across the pitch, that’s a lot of water.
“You can’t hide the fact that the pitch is old. The current pitch is 36 years old, so the infrastructure is old, the drainage is old, but that’s not relevant to the Ipswich game. The facts are the facts. We couldn’t pump that much water.”
