GARY Rowett has argued that Millwall’s postponed match against Sunderland has been rescheduled for the best possible time.
While most rescheduled matches would take place on a Tuesday night, the Lions will now travel to the Stadium of Light on Saturday, December 3rd after the initial fixture was postponed following the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
This means that both teams will be playing during the international break, and at the time of writing, they are the only Championship sides to do so. However, kick-off has been moved back to 12:30 to avoid a potential clash with the England national team, who will play their World Cup round of 16 tie later that afternoon if they finish second in their group.
“My belief is that the EFL have said to teams if there’s games that can be rearranged, if both teams agree, you can use the week before the December 10th,” Rowett told NewsAtDen.
“I think Sunderland asked the question first. When it was put to me: ‘would you rather play Sunderland on a Saturday or Sunderland on a Tuesday night away from home’, I think that was a very, very easy decision.
“Would you rather the international break be three weeks than four? We would’ve played a friendly on that weekend anyway, so again, easy decision.
“Where it’s always going to be a tough one is the fans. I think potentially England could play on that date, hence maybe the early kick-off. I think there’s always going to be ‘well, it’s an early kick-off, so have we got time to get there?’.
“I think someone’s going to lose out on that basis, being so far away, but I just felt it was a sensible decision to agree to it.
“Like I said, I didn’t know about the early kick-off, I wasn’t aware of it, I think that was just both clubs had agreed that. I think it’s a challenge to get there and back anyway, let alone an early kick-off.
“I think I’m always in favour of not having four weeks off without a game rather than three weeks, I think we’ve never been great after a restart of any sort. That’s something that, if we can mitigate it a tiny bit, it’ll be fabulous.”
Photo: Millwall FC