Football and rugby fixtures fall foul of the bad weather

The ‘Beast from the East’ has already made a major impact on Scotland’ s sporting weekend, with nine scottish professional Football League matches called off yesterday.

Tonight’s big game in the Ladbrokes Championship between Dundee United and leaders St Mirren was the first to fall foul of the heavy snow and eight of tomorrow’ s games followed including the Premiership encounter between St Johnstone and Hamilton.

Edinburgh’s Guinness Pro14 game with munster a tb tm ur ray field tonight was called off a day after Glasgow’s trip to Ulster was shelved, while the Scottish FA is in close contact with the clubs involved in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals although no pitch inspections are scheduled at the moment.

Celtic reported their pitch was in good condition ahead of the visit of Morton tomorrow but travel problems and road conditions could put paid to games.

Rangers are due to host Falkirk on Sunday just after Hearts visit Motherwell. If the Fir Park game and Aberdeen’s home tie with Kilmarnock 24 hours earlier are postponed the matches will be played next Tuesday but the rearranged dates for Celtic and Rangers are both Wednesday, 14 March, although police are unlikely to sanction both games going ahead at the same time.

Dundee United announced their league game with St Mirren had been called off “after prolonged snowfall and following a safety inspection in and around Tannadice”.

After the Mcdiarmid Park game was postponed, St Johnstone said: “With further snow fall expected over the next few days it’s believed an early call on this game is best for all concerned.”

Fixtures at Dunfermline, Airdrie, Albion Rovers, Berwick, Clyde, Edinburgh City and Peterhead also fell and the SPFL added that “the remaining games due to be played on Saturday will be kept under review”, including Ross County’s home game against Partick Thistle.

The postponements, on the back of three midweek topflight call-offs, pose a scheduling problem for the SPFL, especially in the Premiership with the split due to take place after 8 April. Hamilton said it was likely one of their outstanding league games would be next week with two midweeks later in March affected by the international break.