Aberdeen will prepare for Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with Kilmarnock going ahead as the ‘Beast from the East’ storm blanketed the majority of Scotland under snow.
The Dons’ Premiership fixture against Motherwell was called off yesterday morning, as the SPFL took advice from the police and clubs to cancel all Wednesday fixtures.
The team travelled on Tuesday night and the postponement came as no surprise to manager Derek McInnes, who had the welfare of supporters at the forefront of his mind.
Temperatures are not forecast to get much above freezing before the weekend and further snow is forecast today and tomorrow. McInnes will try operate as normal ahead of the quarter-final tie.
He said: “There’s no indication that it won’t be on. Temperatures are fine for training and we’re hopeful the forecast doesn’t affect our preparations. With the game being off last night we have to get our heads on the Kilmarnock game and make the assumption the game is going to be OK.”
Should Saturday’s game not be given the go-ahead, it will be played on Tuesday night instead with a 7.45pm kick-off. McInnes will have a fully-fit squad, with suspensions costing him Andrew Considine and Sam Cosgrove however.
The Dons encountered no issues travelling down to the central belt ahead of the Motherwell game and planned to make tracks for home yesterday, after receiving the postponement news.
McInnes added: “We knew what was coming yesterday so it wasn’t a total surprise when we woke up and saw how bad the snow was. The biggest concern was the safety of the supporters travelling to the game, with the forecasted weather. Although we travelled the day before and would like to have got it played, we totally understood the decision.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to wait until the weather hits. Where we had already travelled, the supporters would be setting off on the day. We pushed for an early decision and were in constant dialogue with Motherwell.”
A new date for the Motherwell game will be announced in due course and as well as the SPFL fixtures, all Highland League fixtures were called off too.
It means Rangers now sit six points clear of the Dons in second place, after their game against St Johnstone went ahead on Tuesday night and they ran out 4-1 winners.