WHILE Gary Rowett admits that he understands the frustration surrounding the most recent round of postponed fixtures, the Millwall boss is keen to highlight the significance of the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
The Lions were due to travel up to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon before the match was called off just over 24 hours before kick-off was supposed to take place. In fact, no competitive games took place in England or Scotland at any level over the weekend as the country entered mourning.
It left Millwall in a difficult situation at such short notice, although they ended up playing an in-house match to make up for the lack of competitive action.
Externally, there was some frustration given the fact that other sports such as cricket and rugby were still allowed to take place, although Rowett was keen to state that he understands why the decision was made to call off last weekend’s matches.
“Your first thought is obviously the situation,” he told NewsAtDen.
“When you read all the royal protocols, you can’t help but be amazed by the sheer tradition, how long things have been going back and that heritage. I think you have to accept that this is a once in a lifetime event, in fairness, and I think everyone wants to pay their tributes.
“You can understand why Saturday was called off, but moving forward you want to be able to prepare either way, whatever happens. We just need to be able to prepare and organise what we’re doing training wise because everything gears up to a game, that’s just how we work in football.
“We adjusted the training and it didn’t really make any difference. It was frustrating in some circumstances because we’d won and you want to crack on and play again, but at the same time we accept where we are and where we fit in the importance of things.
There is, however, an argument that the games should’ve gone ahead to prevent supporters from wasting significant amounts of money on travel and accommodation during the cost of living crisis. For Millwall fans, Sunderland is one of the longest away matches of the season, and Rowett acknowledges that many of them will feel upset that the match was cancelled at such short notice.
“I’ve said it before, you always feel sorry for the fans when they get a period of games that don’t seem to make a lot of sense financially for the people that are ultimately why we play football. We’ve seen it – if there’s no fans there, then there’s not much to look forward to in terms of the atmospheres at the games.
“You have to think about them travelling, you have to think about giving them a bit of notice, but I think most people understand the extenuating circumstances around last weekend. I’ve heard a lot of arguments saying that it’d be better to play games and give a real tribute to the Queen in stadiums and at sporting events, but I think that’s not for anyone to make that judgement, it’s for the government and everyone else to make that call.
“We just have to go along with it. I think everyone understands it, and hopefully when those games are replayed, they don’t look quite so chaotic for our fans.”
Millwall’s matches against QPR and Blackpool are still due to take place on Wednesday and Saturday respectively, with a pre-match period of remembrance scheduled for the upcoming London derby.
Photo: Millwall FC