ARSENAL have agreed to stump up the cost of Bolton fans’ travel to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night.

Given the weather that enveloped the south of England, the Trotters supporters who made the trip were unhappy that after repeated assurances the game would survive, it was eventually called off less than five hours before kick-off.

As with the Carling Cup semi-finals at Blackburn and Manchester City earlier this week, the problem was nothing to do with the pitch.

In each instance, local police were concerned about the safety of supporters getting to and from the stadiums and also problems which might be encountered in surrounding areas, many of which were badly affected by snow.

Arsenal believe they acted responsibly but as a gesture to Bolton have agreed to pay the travel costs of supporters who were inconvenienced.

Premier League officials hope the cold snap does not cause too much disruption over the coming days – more matches would have to be scheduled during Champions League weeks if it does.

It is not an explicit order such clashes occur – they have twice this season already – and the Premier League declined to sign a memorandum of understanding sent out by UEFA pledging domestic competitions were not played at the same time, but they prefer to avoid them if possible.

The big freeze is taking another bite of the weekend’s action, with three Championship matches off, while only six of 24 scheduled fixtures in Leagues One and Two have survived inspections yesterday.

The Championship basement battle between Sheffield Wednesday and Peterborough is one of the biggest casualties, along with Watford v Sheffield United and Preston v Doncaster.

Birmingham say they are ‘‘extremely confident’’ tomorrow’s game against Manchester United will go ahead but League One is facing a virtual wipe-out.

The casualty list includes Hartlepool’s trip to Charlton with only the fixtures at Leeds, Norwich and Southend surviving the wintry blast.

In League Two all but one game has been hit by the weather, including Darlington’s trip to Bury which was was postponed yesterday afternoon.

Only the Northampton versus Chesterfield game stands a chance of being on and the Cobblers are requesting help from supporters to clear the pitch of snow.

The big freeze has also wreaked havoc with the fourth round of the Scottish Cup with just seven of the 16 matches remaining.