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Wales Online
Sport
Paul Abbandonato & Mathew Davies

Cardiff City demand answers over Rotherham 'shambles' as star hits out and rearranged game set to cause massive complications

Cardiff City are compiling what they believe to be a dossier of evidence to put before EFL bosses as they demand answers into the 'shambles' that marred the crunch Championship clash with Rotherham.

Bluebirds players, management, officials and fans are united in their anger at what they felt was a lack of urgency from the Rotherham ground staff to sweep water from the pitch following the downpour of rain which saw the relegation six-pointer abandoned two minutes into the second half.

It is understood Cardiff are considering making the case for the match to be restarted at 1-0 given the circumstances of what happened, the lead they were given through Jaden Philogene's expertly taken first-half goal.

READ MORE: Rotherham defend attempts to get Cardiff City game back on amid anger over videos

The likelihood is League bosses will not agree to that and will rearrange the game from scratch at a midweek date to be determined in April.

That in itself presents enormous an enormous challenge as the Bluebirds already have a hectic April of seven league matches, starting with the Welsh derby against Swansea City on the first day of the month.

They follow that with Easter games against Blackpool (April 7) and Sunderland (April 10), followed by a trip to Sheffield United, a midweek game away to Watford and then a home clash with Stoke on April 22.

That is already six key matches in a gruelling 22-day period, which will test Sabri Lamouchi's squad to the full.

The only plausible window for a Rotherham rearrangement, it would seem, would be four days before Cardiff's penultimate home clash with Huddersfield.

If so, that would leave Cardiff playing relegation rivals Rotherham and Huddersfield back-to-back, before winding up the season away to Burnley on May 8.

The League could in theory demand the Rotherham game is replayed ahead of Easter on Tuesday, April 4, as insurance in case there are further postponements for whatever reason.

But that would mean four matches within a 10-day period over Easter and Cardiff could claim it would be dangerous to their players, leaving them susceptible to injuries.

Cardiff fans vented fury as videos emerged on social media of one member of the groundstaff actually dragging water back onto the pitch with the squeegee roller he was using. The Bluebirds hiearchy are aware of the video.

Cardiff intend to ask questions of their own after the match failed to resume.

Rotherham boss Matt Taylor admitted he understood the frustrations, but maintains the Yorkshire club, one of Cardiff's main relegation rivals, did everything in their power to get the game back on

Taylor said: "I understand it, totally, but if it's still unplayable 50 minutes later then it's unplayable to even try."

Bluebirds boss Lamouchi was angered by the fact the match did not restart and did not speak to the media afterwards.

However, his coach Dean Whitehead made clear what the Bluebirds management felt when he took to Twitter post-match. Quote-tweeting a video of the ground staff tending to the waterlogged areas of the pitch, he wrote: "Absolutely disgraceful!! We have a team fighting for every ball every point in a very tough league and I witness this!!! 1500 @CardiffCityFC supporters travelled 5 hours to watch our team play. Safe journey home sorry we couldn’t finish the game."

Cardiff captain Ryan Wintle also let his feelings be known, writing: "Hahahahah surely banter, brushing the advertising boards."

Bluebirds defender Perry Ng labelled the situation a "shambles" on Instagram, referencing the fact the Millers had the sprinklers on at half-time watering the pitch.

Perry Ng on Instagram (Perry Ng/Instagram)

A Cardiff season ticket holder who travelled up to Rotherham and witnessed first hand what happened has sent a 16-point email of complaint to the Football League asking for answers. Many of the issues he raises are also likely to be ones Cardiff bring up with the League hierarchy.

Cardiff had started the second half with a 1-0 lead through a Philogene goal before a 10-minute downpour of rain led to referee Oliver Langford taking the players off the pitch.

Millers boss Taylor and Lamouchi went out onto the pitch with Langford on two separate occasions to assess the conditions before the referee decided to call it a day.

Rotherham remain adamant they could not have done any more. However, the optics of so few groundstaff did not appear to be a good look as far as Cardiff fans were concerned.

The situation was in stark contrast to the famous moment when heavy rain and violent storms delayed the 1995 Rugby World Cup semi-final between hosts South Africa and France. Armed with huge brooms, women and youngsters were among those asked to help with the clear up that day and the pitch was eventually made playable, enabling the Springboks to win 19-15 en route to conquering the world.

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