Phil Tooley caught up with three key men in the wake of the unexpected postponement of the derby game against Rotherham United.

Referee Scott Mathieson, minutes after calling the game off at just before 10.30am

I'd been in regular phone contact with the club over the previous 72 hours, the ground had been sheeted up overnight and when I pulled the sheets back, those particular areas of the pitch were playable.

Unfortunately a couple of the sheets blew away during the night which exposed those parts of the pitch to the inclement weather and those areas that have been exposed are solid and with the experience I've had with previous pitch inspections over the years, I deemed the pitch as unplayable.

At the time the temperatures were not lifting, it was still zero degrees, so I felt there was no prospect of the pitch being ready by kick off time.

Ian Breckin, spoken to around 11am

I woke up this morning and never thought that the match would be in doubt but obviously one of the covers has blown off and frozen the pitch in that certain area and the referee's deemed it unplayable. I've been on the pitch on the bit concerned and it looks fine to me but it's the referee's decision.

It would have been a fantastic game, a full house, a great atmosphere, a good game to have played in and to have watched but the ref's called it off so we just have to deal with it.

John Sheridan, in conversation at noon

I think the pitch is perfect to be fair, I think it's a ridiculous decision. He's on about a little patch that you can get a key in, it'll take a stud and it seems perfect to play on.

The referee obviously looks at things in a different light and he's saying safety reasons, he's made a decision, it's his decision but we've been out on the pitch and it's perfect for me.

If I'd have been the referee we'd have been kicking off. I'm just disappointed I wasn't here at the time he made his decision, I may have been able to have persuaded him differently. I looked at the pitch on Sunday, it looked perfect and at no time did I think there'd be any inspection so it's very disappointing, it would have been a good game, great atmosphere, so we're all very disappointed.