YORK City’s postponed Blue Square Premier clash at Weymouth is expected to cost the club £6,000.

The Minstermen have already shelled out £3,000 for the fixture in travel, accommodation and food costs after travelling to Dorset on Monday with Weymouth, the Conference and Setanta Sports hopeful, at that time, of avoiding yesterday’s widespread frost.

But a 10am inspection confirmed the pitch was unplayable, leaving City to hold a training session at nearby Yeovil before making the six-hour return journey to North Yorkshire yesterday.

The financial implications for the KitKat Crescent club could have been even greater had it not been for a goodwill gesture from the hotel, who agreed to waive the charges for last night’s reserved rooms.

City will now, however, miss out on the £2,000 fee paid by Setanta to visiting teams for their televised matches with the Irish broadcasters unlikely to select the rearranged game for live coverage.

And the Minstermen will now face similar costs to those already incurred for a second trip to the Wessex Stadium.

The club are planning to write to the Conference to explore possible forms of compensation.

Communications and community director Sophie Hicks, pictured right, said: “We are bitterly disappointed the Weymouth game was postponed.

“The financial impact will be around £3,000 as we have had to fund unnecessary accommodation and travel for the players.

“The rearranged game is also unlikely to appear on Setanta, so we will miss out on the £2,000 fee we would have received for the televised match.

“Also, we will have to make the long journey again to Weymouth and we will have to consider whether we can now afford an overnight stay.”

Manager Martin Foyle said the trip was “a waste of time”.

Foyle said: “I can understand why Weymouth were hoping it would go ahead with it being on Setanta, but the whole exercise was a waste of time for us really. Yeovil’s match was called off the morning before, so we travelled down thinking this might happen.

“At least, we managed to train at Yeovil thanks to their manager Russell Slade. We’ve trained on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so our working patterns haven’t been as badly disrupted as some teams.

“With the bad weather we are having, though, it also demonstrates there are too many games for this level. If you do well in the cup competitions, then you hardly get a midweek break, as the likes of Wrexham, Histon and Barrow will find out.”

The postponement means new loan signing Kyle Critchell will need to wait for Saturday’s FA Trophy trip to Oxford for the chance to make his debut, but Simon Rusk will now miss that game having been due to serve a one-match suspension last night.

Critchell has been cleared by Wrexham to play in the Trophy and Tuesday’s Setanta Shield trip to Barrow.

City boss Foyle also revealed he had received no inquiries about any member of his squad since the transfer window reopened on January 1, while admitting he might allow a couple of players to seek loan moves.

He said: “I might want to talk to one or two of them about that possibility, but it would be a case of where we could put them and I’d like to get some more in first as well.”

A move for winger Adam Smith has stalled, though, because Blue Square North outfit Gainsborough are believed to be holding out for a transfer fee.

Smith’s one-month loan spell at KitKat Crescent has now expired but he would have been ineligible for the Trophy clash against Oxford in any case.