As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Gary Rowett conceded that Derby County’s Carabao Cup First Round tie at Grimsby Town this evening had to be abandoned.
Due to heavy rain throughout the early-evening in Cleethorpes – and with the forecast showing no sign of improving – the game at Blundell Park was postponed after 19 minutes of action by Referee Trevor Kettle.
Derby were 1-0 up at the time thanks to skipper Richard Keogh’s early header but as the rain continued to pour down, the conditions became more dangerous for the players.
With their safety paramount, the decision was made to abandon the match.
Rowett admitted he was disappointed that the game couldn’t carry on but held his hands up to the fact that the match officials were left with no alternative.
He told RamsTV: “I think it probably had to be called off, as much as we didn’t want it to be.
“We were 1-0 up, playing quite well after 18 minutes and moving the ball round as we wanted too.
“The referee spoke to myself and Russell Slade and said that we should give it another five minutes.
“I am no weatherman but I couldn’t see the conditions improving and the next tackle looked a little bit dangerous, so at that point he had no choice.
“I can’t think of the last game I was involved in where it got abandoned – the last one was probably the first game at Pride Park Stadium when the floodlights went out!
“I’ve not been involved in too many and it doesn’t happen very often.”
He added: “With the volume of the rain, you could see straight away it was going to be tricky.
“After the warm-up, the lads said that it was alright and that they thought the pitch would hold but the rain kept coming down.
“It was only 18 minutes but we looked pretty comfortable and we looked like we were going to have a decent evening – it’s a shame.”
“Rather than have a recovery day tomorrow, we’ll train as normal, we won’t be back as late and we can prepare how we usually would.”
Derby were backed by over 1,000 supporters at Blundell Park in the away end.
On top of being disappointed for the players that the game couldn’t continue, the Rams’ boss also felt for the travelling faithful.
He said: “I think the worst thing with a game like that is that you see the fans who had travelled up in numbers on a Tuesday night.
“I feel sorry for them but once again we really appreciate their support and backing.”
Details of a re-arranged date for the match – and ticket information – will be confirmed in due course on dcfc.co.uk.