YORK City financial director Terry Doyle has estimated that the cancellation of Friday night's friendly against Newcastle United will cost the club more than £10,000 in lost revenue.

Doyle believes the match would have attracted a crowd of 2,500 and with Newcastle, like Doncaster Rovers and Middlesbrough before them, agreeing to hand over all gate receipts to the host club, the Minstermen have missed out on a useful pay day.

Newcastle had also promised to include some players with first-team experience but a contagious eye infection, picked up during the Magpies' recent tour of Hong Kong, means City boss Chris Brass is currently without a final warm-up match before the start of the Conference season a week on Saturday.

Doyle said: "It's clearly a blow. Our intention in planning our pre-season programme was to make it attractive to fans and also to generate revenue.

"This game's cancellation will now result in a significant shortfall to our anticipated pre-season budget, allied with some unexpected policing costs. The lost revenue will be in excess of £10,000 because I would have been disappointed not to get a crowd of 2,500 with it being our last friendly and with Newcastle having promised to send a team with some recognisable names in it.

"It's also clearly too late to find anybody else as a replacement at such short notice. It's a financial blow and the team has also lost its last scheduled chance of match practice before the end of the season."

Despite his disappointment, Doyle holds no malice towards the Premiership club who, he feels, had no choice but to avoid visiting Bootham Crescent where the infection could have been spread.

He said: "Newcastle sent a first team to Celtic last night but it was too late to call that fixture off. There's no doubt whatsoever that they had a genuine reason to call our game off. It's very unfortunate but I don't think there was any option."

The City board member added that few fans had taken up the club's offer to gain a £10 discount on the pre-season fixture programme by buying tickets for all five friendlies in advance.

But he added that any pre-paid tickets would be refunded.

The Magpies have been forced to shut down their Tyneside training base for four days to prevent more players falling victim of the contagious eye infection that has struck St James' Park.

Shay Given, Lee Bowyer, Andy O'Brien and Tony Caig are already suffering and the rest of the squad have been ordered to stay at home.

Newcastle boss Bobby Robson said: "It's a serious, serious business. We lost Shay Given, whose eye is in a wretched state. Then we lost Andy O'Brien and then Lee Bowyer, before Tony Caig went down with it yesterday morning.

"The eye closes up with swelling and watering and it's very nasty. We've had to shut down for four days.

"We've told the players to keep themselves fit for now and we'll be looking for somewhere to train in the meantime."

Newcastle lost 2-1 at Celtic.

Updated: 10:50 Thursday, August 05, 2004