Hearts and Kilmarnock agreed the decision to postpone their Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash was the right one after the latter's team bus was caught up in motorway chaos.

The match in Edinburgh was called off at approximately 1.45pm as a result of the gridlock on the M8, caused by a lorry fire near the Kirk O'Shotts exit that sparked massive tailbacks.

The Killie bus and several hundred of their fans were caught up in the congestion and had no chance of making the match for the scheduled 3pm kick-off time. The Killie players are even understood to have begun a training warm-up on the edge of the motorway in the hope the traffic would eventually start moving.

Only around six Kilmarnock players had arrived at Tynecastle independently, alongside manager Jim Jefferies and assistant Billy Brown.

With kick-off likely to have been delayed until around 5pm, it was decided after discussions with Jefferies, Hearts counterpart Csaba Laszlo and referee Willie Collum to call the game off.

It was deemed inappropriate to let fans, who had already started gathering at the stadium, wait that length of time for the match.

The fixture has now been rescheduled for this coming Tuesday night with a 7.45pm kick-off.

Hearts managing director Campbell Ogilvie said: "We took all the factors into account. We had a meeting with the police, the managers of both clubs and the referee.

"The Kilmarnock team bus was still at Eurocentral and the traffic probably wasn't going to start moving until at least 2.30pm. The earliest the kick-off could have been was potentially 4-5pm.

"There was nothing else we could do. The spectators would have been hanging about for some time and the Kilmarnock team would have had no time for preparation, not even a pre-match meal."