Due to bad weather, both of the English Carling Cup Semifinals have been postponed. The matches included Manchester City v Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa. The make up dates for the Manchester derby match have been decided and will be January 19th and January 27th. For the Blackburn v Aston Villa match, the make-up date will be announced Wednesday morning. Below are the press releases from both home clubs about the postponement of each match.

The postponed Carling Cup semi final will now take place on Tuesday January 19th (home), and Wednesday January 27th (away).

It is with regret that the club can confirm that due to extreme weather conditions in the North West of England, the Carling Cup semi-final first leg tie against Manchester United scheduled has been postponed.

After discussions with the relevant parties including Greater Manchester Police, the Safety Advisory Committee, the Football League and Manchester United, the decision was unanimously reached that the game should be re-scheduled due to safety concerns ,particularly with regard to travel for supporters.

The North West Ambulance Service has declared the region as a major incident area and Greater Manchester Police are now responding to emergency calls only. The Met Office was also consulted and with projected temperatures of minus four tonight, due to drop to minus 6 on Wednesday evening, all parties agreed a postponement was the only solution. Knowing this now, it would be irresponsible to wait for tomorrow, when up to 47,000 fans would be at risk in addition to 900 staff many of whom would need to set off early, some from long distances, in advance of the decision to postpone.

“It is a huge disappointment for everyone that we have had to postpone the tie but we have had the kind of harsh weather unseen in this part of the world for years and years,” explained City CEO Garry Cook.

“We pursued every avenue possible in search of a solution and whilst the pitch is still playable, what was paramount in our thinking was the safety of fans travelling to and from the game especially in light of the sub-zero temperature forecast for Wednesday night.

“In the end everyone who was part of the discussions was unanimous that it would have been too dangerous to play the game as scheduled.”

We apologise for the delay on this story reaching the site, but this was  through technical difficulties not of our own making.The Premier League match at Stoke City will now be re-arranged.

Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa match postponed

The club can confirm that tonight’s Carling Cup Semi Final First Leg against Aston Villa has been postponed.

The decision was taken in conjunction with the Police Match Commander on the grounds of public safety and following consultation with the Football League.

Since first thing this morning we have been in constant contact with both the Met Office and Police and have been monitoring both the weather and road network conditions in our area. Some roads around Ewood Park are currently inaccessible and even the motorways have only been passable with extreme care, with many travellers having already experienced lengthy delays and disruption. It is still snowing heavily in Blackburn, as it has been all morning, and advice locally is not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary and in addition severe weather warnings have being issued throughout the country.

The weather forecast for the day states that we can expect more snow and freezing temperatures in Lancashire and that heavy snow is expected in the Midlands later in the day and will continue throughout the evening and early hours of Wednesday morning.

Whilst the Ewood Park pitch is playable we believe it would be unadvisable to expect fans, staff etc to attempt to get to the match. Even if fans are able to get to Ewood Park we would not like to speculate on what type of journey home they may face at 10.00pm tonight when temperatures will be sub-zero.

Further information concerning rearrangement of the fixture will follow in due course. Match tickets will be valid for the rearranged fixture but fans who have purchased tickets and are unable to attend on the new date, can obtain a refund by applying to the ticket office in advance of the fixture.