Southampton’s Championship clash with Preston North End on Wednesday was postponed due to a fire in close proximity to St Mary’s Stadium.
Southampton were left with no choice but to call off the scheduled fixture, with a statement released by the club on Wednesday afternoon confirming the postponement of the 19:45 kick-off.
The statement read: ‘Southampton Football Club regrets to announce that tonight’s Sky Bet Championship match against Preston North End has been postponed’.
‘The decision was made after consultation with the local authorities and emergency services after a major fire broke out in a building next to the St Mary’s Stadium site earlier today’.
With safety the obvious priority and the reason behind the decision, how will this postponement impact Southampton from a footballing perspective?
Kyle Walker-Peters should return for rearranged Preston fixture
With both Southampton and Preston’s schedules taken into account, it appears there are realistically only four weeks in which the rearranged game could take place according to Daily Echo Southampton reporter Alfie House.
All of the available dates fall on either a Tuesday or Wednesday, with the potential options being 12th or 13th March, 16th or 17th of April, 23rd or 24th April, or either the 30th April or 1st May.
The good news for Southampton is that this should mean that a couple of key players who would have been absent had the game gone ahead as planned should now be available for the rearranged fixture. Ryan Fraser is one such player and, provided the game does not take place on the earliest of the available dates, will be fit again given Russell Martin has stated the Scotland international will return after the international break.
Crucially, though, it will mean that Kyle Walker-Peters should be available and that could be massive for Southampton against a play-off chasing Preston side. Walker-Peters has been Southampton’s stand out player this campaign and up until the 4-3 win over Birmingham City last time out he had played every minute in the league for Southampton this season.
Preston like to play with a back three and wingbacks who fly forward to provide an attacking outlet, so having Walker-Peters back in the side to combat that, as well as exploit the space left when those North End players get forward, will likely be a key factor to the end result.
Preston postponement could test Southampton mentality
The flip-side of the postponed game is that it leaves Southampton eight points off the automatic promotion spots after Ipswich Town’s dramatic 3-2 win over Bristol City on Tuesday night and unable to do anything to close the gap until Saturday.
The Saints do now have a game in hand on their promotion rivals of course, but if you asked Martin whether he would prefer the extra game or the points he would undoubtedly take the points every time.
There is a question over how this will affect Southampton mentally. Having been on a remarkable 25-game unbeaten run in all competitions extending from the end of September to the start of February, the Saints have now lost four of their last six games and conceded 13 goals in the process. Confidence among the squad may be brittle right now and the unenviable task of clawing back eight points with so little of the season remaining could be unsettling.
Ultimately, though, all Southampton can do to close this gap is win football matches and this situation does not change regardless of when the Preston fixture is eventually played. With Southampton’s trip to Leicester City on March 15th also set to be rearranged due to the Foxes’ FA Cup exploits, it looks as though the Saints will have a more congested end to the season than they would have envisaged.
If Martin’s side can rediscover their form and gain some momentum, though, there will be no complaints if the last 11 games of the Championship season come thick and fast.
All that has changed is that Southampton must now follow up their win over Birmingham with a home win over another side with play-off aspirations – albeit increasingly unlikely ones – in the form of Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.