Southend United's match against Walsall on Saturday has been postponed after succumbing to the weather.

Hertfordshire based referee Paul Taylor attended Roots Hall at 5.00pm this evening to inspect the playing surface.

Snow and icy conditions have hit the country; with the Football League's fixture calendar having already seen 22 matches cancelled this weekend and a further three pitch inspections planned om Friday.

And the referee has decided that the pitch and areas in and around the stadium would not be safe to play football come the weekend with conditions set to worsen.

With the Walsall team set to travel on Friday and with a prospect of further snow and sub zero temperatures to follow it was determined an early call-off was in everyone's best interests.

A new date for the fixture is yet to be confirmed, with the Saddlers already having a backlog of fixtures having not played since 19th December; it will be announced shortly on southendunited.co.uk.

Supporters who have already booked tickets for the original fixture will still be able to use these for the re-arranged date.