LUKE Williams felt the postponement of Swindon Town’s clash with Crawley Town yesterday was a “blessing in disguise” for several of the Robins’ injured players.

A waterlogged pitch at the County Ground forced referee Steven Rushton into calling off the game at 1pm on New Year’s Day following a night of heavy rainfall in SN1.

Grant Hall, Jay McEveley and Miles Storey were all carrying niggles going into the tie and were due to undergo fitness tests prior to kick-off but never got the chance to be put through their paces.

“We were due to do a fitness test on the pitch,” said Williams. “That didn’t take place but it’s a blessing in disguise for those boys because it gives them more time to recover.

“We’re going to train tomorrow and it will be very physically demanding for the players as we try to recreate what they would have done because that’s part of their fitness regime.

“We expect them to play hard at least once a week so they’ll do that, have a little time to recover and then we’ll go again.”

Williams was satisfied that Rushton made the right call in postponing the game with the soggy County Ground pitch unplayable.

“Clearly it’s not playable,” he said.

“The ball won’t bounce or move true so it would have been a shambles.

“They know what they’re doing and they’re determined to get a game on if it’s safe enough and if it’s going to be a realistic option. Today it wasn’t so fair play to the ref.”

Meanwhile, Williams paid tribute to Nicky Ajose following the striker’s return to Peterborough after a loan stint in Swindon which featured 10 goals in 21 appearances.

“Nicky was a pleasure to work with because he is a very dedicated professional and he helped us out hugely with his goals and his work and his attitude towards things,” said Williams. “He’ll be very sorely missed but he’s not our player.

“We wish him all the best and thank him for everything he has done.”

Finally, Williams confirmed that the ongoing Nile Ranger saga has now become a boardroom issue.

Representatives of the striker were due to sit down with Town today to discuss the termination of his contract with Swindon but that meeting is understood to have been put back to next week.

Until those discussions have taken place the Advertiser has learnt that Ranger will not train with his Town teammates.

“It’s a boardroom issue,” said Williams. “We’re trying to see if there’s anything we can work out that we haven’t already tried.

“We’ve tried plenty of things to help Nile in the difficult situation he’s in but now it’s got to board level.”