Town’s U18 and U16 home matches against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday morning have been postponed due to the snow and ice still affecting the Playford Road pitches.

Manager Mick McCarthy said that the conditions at the training ground had also hampered first team preparations this week: “We’ve been out, but it’s limited what you can do because we’re training on half a pitch. And that’s no fault of anybody’s except the guy who organises the weather.”

The Blues boss was at Derby on Wednesday night to see the U18s exit the FA Youth Cup after losing 3-2 to the Rams and felt they ought to have made more of their early dominance: “They played very well for 15 minutes, took the lead and really should have gone further in front, then they gave a penalty away.

“Derby had some older players, U18s, whereas we had a few younger ones in. They looked bigger and stronger, equalised with the penalty, took the lead, we equalised and it was nip and tuck in the second half.

“I thought we did OK against what was probably a slightly stronger team and then they scored with a wonder freekick, which we couldn’t do anything about. They did all right.”

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