Aston Villa boss Dean Smith says he has every sympathy with Newcastle United and agreed with the decision to postpone Friday's game.
Villa were left kicking their heels after a number of first team players at Newcastle tested positive for COVID and Public Health England closed down the training ground.
The match was called off on Tuesday and the focus is now on Newcastle's game against West Brom, with hope that the situation will have been brought under control in enough time for United to fulfil that fixture.
Some Villa fans were incensed about the decision and Jim White led a discussion programme about the possibility of forfeiting the match.
But Smith, like the Premier League, said he agreed with the call.
"Obviously very disappointed because we played very well at West Ham and came away from the match with nothing so Newcastle would have been an opportunity to get back to playing straight away and get three points on board.
"But we certainly agree with the postponement of the game. Newcastle have had some positive tests up there and Public Health England have closed their training ground. We're very sympathetic of their needs and we'd like to think that our opponents - if it was us - would be as sympathetic as we are to Newcastle's cause.
"Fully respect that the game needed to be postponed."
There's no date yet set for the rearranged fixture, but Jose Mourinho called for all the postponed matches to be played before match week 19, which is in January.
