SCUNTHORPE United's match at Doncaster Rovers on New Year's Day came 'very close' to being called off, the South Yorkshire club have revealed.

Kick-off at the Keepmoat Stadium was delayed for 55 minutes while a second ambulance made its way to the ground.

For the Iron, that perhaps wouldn't have been a bad thing given they crashed to a disappointing 3-0 defeat when the action finally got underway.

"It was close to being called off," admitted Doncaster boss Sean O'Driscoll, who expects his side to be fined by the Football League.

"At what point do you go, 'we can't keep people hanging around forever'.

"One minute the ambulance was coming, then it was broken down, then it was somewhere on the A1, then we couldn't get in contact with them.

"It came close to us saying 'we're going to have to call this a day', which would have been farcical.

"I would imagine the Football League will throw the book at us, but if we get fined, I'm sure we'll pass the fine on to the people that were responsible.

"It might be called Doncaster Rovers' stadium, but we hire it. The people that run the venue are responsible for safety."

Iron manager Ian Baraclough refused to use the delayed start as an excuse for his side's first-half collapse, in which they allowed Rovers to score three times in 19 minutes.

“It was the same for both teams,” he said, though refused to rule out an official complaint.

Scunthorpe started brightly, but were punished for failing to take a ninth minute chance that fell their way when Jonathan Forte saw a shot tamely saved by home keeper Neil Sullivan.

“We should have been in front before Doncaster scored,” said the United manager.

“Jonathan was disappointed with the miss and so he should be. He needs a goal to boost his confidence.

“We started the game brightly, made Doncaster play more long balls than they would have wanted too.

“I thought we had a strong foothold in the game, but when you create chances, you have to take them.

“We didn’t and fell 1-0 behind and then all of a sudden, 20 minutes later, we were 3-0 down. That is not a good situation to be in.

“On the back of the Burnley win I thought this was a game we were well capable of winning.”

Doncaster boss O’Driscoll thought Rovers’ finishing had been the big difference between the two teams.

“We can player better, but our finishing was different class,” he added.

“That makes the difference in any division. If you create chances and stick them away, everything else doesn’t really matter.”