Newcastle United’s travel plans for their Premier League clash against Southampton could be affected by Storm Eowyn, manager Eddie Howe admitted on Friday.
Record high winds from Storm Eowyn have battered parts of the United Kingdom on Friday. A red warning — the highest alert level — was issued by the UK Met Office for parts of Scotland while an amber warning is in force for the North East of England, with many flights cancelled out of Newcastle Airport.
The Newcastle team are due to fly out of the airport down to Southampton, on the South Coast, on Friday afternoon. They kick off at St Mary’s on Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT (10 a.m. ET).
“We will see how today goes,” Howe said on Friday. “Our plan is to travel today but we are seeking advice from authorities and the airport if it’s safe to fly.
“If it’s not, we could end up travelling [Saturday] morning.
“We have travelled on the day before to a 5.30 p.m. kick-off, you are in and you’re out. It’s slightly unusual for a 3 p.m. kick-off but just something we will have to adapt to.”
Newcastle could travel by coach, but that brings its own complexities.
“We have to be careful [with that] as the wind might turn an 8-9 hour journey into a 12-13 hour one,” he explained. “It is a long journey, and also there’s no guarantee with the wind and the conditions.”
Newcastle, who are sixth in the Premier League following last weekend’s defeat to Bournemouth, still want to train on Friday despite the conditions ahead of the game against bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
“It’s windy I have to say, I struggled to get in,” Howe said. “We need to find somewhere sheltered enough, and we do have a dome we can use but it’s whether that is safe because that’s the strongest winds I’ve seen here.”
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