Exclusive: Blackburn Rovers v Ipswich Town replay fall-out continues - "really harsh" claim made by Sky pundit | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie gives his view on the decision to replay the Blackburn Rovers/Ipswich Town game in full

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie believes that the EFL's decision to replay the Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich Town match in full is "bizarre," but feels that the decision can spur Valerien Ismael's side on to win convincingly when the replayed game takes place.

The original matchup last Saturday was called off after 79 minutes, after the referee deemed the Ewood Park surface to be unplayable due to heavy rainfall, with Blackburn a goal up and seemingly on their way to three points, with Ipswich down to ten men.

However, the two sides will have to restart the match from minute one, following a comprehensive decision process which took days to complete.

Ultimately, any decision would have caused upset for certain fanbases, and the EFL acknowledged that the decision was an "incredibly difficult" one.

In an exclusive interview with Football League World, current EFL pundit Lee Hendrie gave his viewpoint on the final decision.

Lee Hendrie reacts to Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town, replay decision

"Yeah, I think it's really harsh," Hendrie told Football League World.

However, despite the decision seeming unfair to Blackburn, Hendrie decided to look at things from the opposite side and take it from Ipswich's point of view, too.

Rovers have already thrown a 1-0 home lead away in the final ten minutes of a game this season against Birmingham City, so there's a clear argument to be made that, despite it looking unlikely at the time, Kieran McKenna's side could have gotten back into it.

Some critics said that the fairer thing to do would be to just replay the final 10 minutes, but making Ipswich's players, staff and fans do a near-10-hour round trip just for 10 minutes of football where they're a man and a goal down too seems unfair, also.

"If you look on the flip side," Hendrie continued. "Having to play the final 10 minutes of the game, or a short spell of it, and just turning up and doing that...it's hard to say.

"But this is the way we see so many rules, and the decisions have been made. It's harsh, and Rovers will feel really aggrieved.

"But I think it will just give them the motivation to really kick on and win that game."

Blackburn Rovers will have extra motivation to beat Ipswich Town in the replayed game

As Hendrie alluded to, Blackburn can feel frustrated at the EFL's decision, but they should use those frustrations to ensure that they beat Ipswich when the Tractor Boys make the trip back to Ewood Park.

Ultimately, that will be the preferred outcome for everyone, too, as more legalities could be brought into play if Ipswich do win, especially if that result plays a part in either side's position come May.

However, there's no chance that the Ipswich side would have wanted to make the long trip to Lancashire just to play 10 minutes of football, so ultimately, whilst harsh, this seems like the right decision for now.

There's no doubting, however, that this rearranged game will be one to definitely keep an eye on, as there'll be a certain atmosphere at Ewood Park that you wouldn't usually expect to see for a match between two sides with not much history with each other.