ROBBO: DO NOT RISK ANY LIVES
JOHN ROBERTSON last night urged the SPFL to act swiftly and sensibly this morning to avoid placing lives at risk on Scotland’s roads.
The Inverness boss and his squad endured a 14-hour ordeal on the A9 in early December and he was in no mood to contemplate opponents Brechin suffering a similar scenario.
Setting off the day before facing Queen of the South in Dumfries, the Caley Thistle players and staff found themselves trapped behind a major accident.
Despite running out of drinking water for several hours and only arriving at the team hotel at 3am on the Saturday the SPFL insisted they play.
Robbo, while declaring the Inverness pitch playable for tomorrow, said: “We were obviously disappointed when our midweek game against Dumbarton fell but when you see how the weather is affecting the country it’s understandable.
“Right now all our thoughts are on the safety of the public – that’s paramount.
“We see what’s going on down in the central belt. Normally it’s the other way about and we are the ones having to deal with the adverse weather and snow. We will have to now wait and see if the game goes ahead.
“Bizarrely, we don’t have a problem with the pitch for the first time in a few weeks so it is down to whether Brechin and their fans can travel here safely. There is no snow in Inverness but the rest of the country looks horrendous.
“The biggest problem for anybody seems to be getting to Perth from anywhere south or east. From Perth upwards it seems to be clear and fine.
“Going to Queen of the South this season we had much-publicised travel problems and that may be a sticking point for a team coming north.
“But we are totally sympathetic regarding Brechin and their players – their safety must come first.”
Robertson hopes the problems stemming from the big freeze hitting the south and central belt will encourage football chiefs to look more kindly on northerly clubs now.
He said: “I’d like think this situation might make the SPFL think a bit more sympathetically towards the north sides.
“And if the weather is as bad tomorrow we would not expect Brechin to travel. We’d prefer they stayed home in safety with their families. We wouldn’t want anybody in the situation we were in.”