Fixtures are decimated by freezing conditions

Heavy snow was predicted in Hull overnight and officials at the KC Stadium made the decision to call off the match last night – the fifth Premier League match to bite the dust.

Earlier in the day, Liverpool's clash against Tottenham tomorrow plus games at Sunderland, Fulham and Burnley today fell victim to Britain's severe winter.

As with most games at the top level, where all clubs have undersoil heating, the problem is with the area surrounding the ground and roads.

A Liverpool spokesman said: "The safety of our fans is paramount and an assessment of both the prevailing conditions and the weather forecast for the next 48 hours has been made in arriving at the decision to call off the match."

Sunderland acted yesterday morning to call off their clash against Bolton at the Stadium of Light following a second meeting of the city's Safety Advisory Group.

Black Cats chief executive Steve Walton said: "The consensus of the group is that it would present a significant safety risk to go ahead with the game and we are in full support of that judgment."

Fulham also felt it was too dangerous for fans travelling to Craven Cottage for their meeting with Portsmouth, and Burnley's Turf Moor encounter with Stoke also fell by the wayside for the same reasons.

Another Premier League game is in jeopardy after Wigan revealed their undersoil heating has failed ahead of the clash with Aston Villa.

Referee Stuart Attwell will inspect the pitch at 8.30am to decide whether the match can go ahead as scheduled at 3pm.

The area around the ground has been declared safe, and manager Roberto Martinez had earlier said: "I have to congratulate our safety team at the stadium who have worked tirelessly to try and clear the area of ice and snow over the past few days."

It was a different story, however, in the Football League, as the heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures affecting the whole of the UK have also ravaged the fixture list. Only three games remain today in the Coca-Cola Championship after the clashes between Middlesbrough and Swansea at the Riverside and QPR and and Plymouth at Loftus Road became the latest casualties.

The League One games at Leeds and Norwich are the only fixtures set to go ahead in that division and the whole League Two programme is now off.

Lindsay Dovey of weather group Meteogroup, said: "There is likely to be snow in the Hull area and across parts of south-east London, they will still be very nasty conditions."

And looking longer term there appears to be little respite, with current forecasts anticipating the cold spell continuing into the middle of next week.

Dovey added: "We can expect to see further wintry showers with a band of snow moving across the south-east on Sunday night and spreading across central England by Monday."

Weekend games not postponed

Premier League

Arsenal v Everton

Birmingham v Manchester Utd

Wigan v Aston Villa

West Ham v Wolves (Sunday)

Championship

Cardiff v Blackpool

Coventry v Barnsley

Derby v Scunthorpe Utd

Leicester v Ipswich (Sunday)

League One

Leeds Utd v Wycombe W

Norwich v Exeter