Saints are hoping Sky will still televise their re-arranged clash at Newcastle after yesterday's postponement which cost them half a million pounds.

No new date has yet been fixed for the game which was called off two hours before the scheduled kick-off because the pitch was waterlogged by snow, sleet and slush.

The decision by referee Steve Lodge cost Southampton £500,000 lost television revenue on top of their travel and hotel costs.

And it left the 600 travelling fans badly out of pocket as most of them had got to within a few miles of the ground when the announcement was made.

Unless Saints go out of the AXA sponsored FA Cup to Tranmere, the new date will almost certainly mean a mid-week trek to the north-east.

And The Dell are hoping Sky will slot it in as an extra televised fixture to help compensate them for their lost time and money.

Chairman Rupert Lowe was spared a wasted trip as he was leaving for Chile to join the youth team tour.

But his heart went out to the fans who wasted their time and money. And he hinted the club may try to subsidise travel for those who decide to go back.

He said: "I really feel for them. I gather around 600 were making the long trip and they must have had a wretched day.

"It will have been a long expensive drive through awful weather and they did not even get a game at the end of it.

"It is very annoying when something like this happens but there is not much anyone can do about it when Nature intervenes like that.

"We will think about what we can do to help those going back. We are usually pretty fair about these things and we will do our best to make it easier for people to go again.

"If the re-arranged game is not televised it will cost us around £500,000 which is a lot of money to a club like Southampton.

"We don't know for sure that we won't get it, but certainly we would rather have it in the bank today.

"If they don't screen that one, then there is a fair chance they will give us another game before the end of the season."

Newcastle have lost even more than Saints from the postponement, their first for many years.

A spokesman said: "No-one can remember the last time we had a match postponed for the weather - and it would be a televised one and one where the visiting supporters had so far to travel.

"We can't put an exact figure on how much it has cost but it will be half a million from Sky plus the cost of all our stewards and staff who all reported for duty, plus the catering.

"We had 6,000 meals going to waste. Many of the corporate people still went ahead and Bobby Robson went round them all to talk to them.

"His view was that it was rotten luck - really rotten luck that by the time the game is played we will have Alan Shearer and Carl Cort fit again!"

Newcastle have a blank Saturday on February 17 but Saints have an FA Cup tie at home to Tranmere that day. And if they get through that, it will wipe out the chance of playing on the quarter-final date of March 10.

Secretary Brian Truscott said: "We will talk over possible new dates with Newcastle and with the Premier League but we are hoping Sky will still take it as an additional game.

"We will have to live with the hotel and travel costs, that is just one of those things that you have to accept with it being a winter game.

"It is very rare these days that Premiership matches are called off, because pitches are so much better but there are all sorts of considerations as well as the pitch including the surrounding roads."

Saints fans who cannot make the re-arranged date will be able to get a refund on their match tickets.

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