Robson angry at falling victim to cold weather

As freezing conditions continued to play havoc with fixture lists, the postponement yesterday of Middlesbrough v Newcastle United in the Premiership upset the Newcastle manager, Sir Bobby Robson. The Magpies are on a run of form, having won their last three league games and the postponed derby left Robson angry over any delay to Newcastle's assault on the title.

The game was called off shortly before lunchtime after heavy snow on Teesside yesterday, with Middlesbrough citing the safety of spectators as the reason. However, Robson, whose side went second in the Premiership with Wednesday's 1-0 win at Tottenham, was not a happy man despite completing his £9m signing of Jonathan Woodgate.

Robson said: "In all honesty, I'm really quite angry about the match being off. I don't think there was much will, to be honest, from Middlesbrough about playing this game.

"There were reasons other than, I think, those that have been stated, but there it is. There's nothing we can do about it. We even asked for the match to be played on Tuesday, but nobody seems to be interested in that."

The freeze was not confined to the North-east, with last night's rugby union games in the Welsh Premiership, Cardiff v Bridgend and Pontypridd v Caerphilly, together with the rugby league National League Cup match between Sheffield and Batley, falling victim.

Today's matches in the Nationwide League, Brentford v Huddersfield, Darlington v Cambridge United and Leyton Orient v Rochdale, were joined by further postponements in the Bell's Scottish League.

No race meetings have been called off. However, with temperatures still below zero, inspections will be held this morning at three of today's National Hunt cards: Sandown, Wetherby and Uttoxeter.