This was the scene at Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday - while the rest of the city was blanketed by a heavy snowfall.

The pitch was an oasis of green, while a white-out threatened many of next weekend's matches in other parts of the country.

The players trained on the pitch on Tuesday, when they took part in a full-scale practice match, and may return for another session on Thursday.

Now arrangements are in hand to clear any remaining snow and ice from the stands, car parks and all approaches to the Stadium, should it be necessary before Saturday's home match with Blackpool.

One player hoping for a quick return to action after Saturday's FA postponement at Bristol City is Cardiff wing wizard Chris Burke, who said: "The pitch is looking good considering the conditions over the last week or so. I scored a goal in the training match and hopefully I can do that on Saturday.

"It was disappointing to have the match called off at Bristol because we needed to get the Peterborough match out of our system. The only way to do that is by playing football, but we'll just have to grit our teeth and get on with it - we're looking forward to the match against Blackpool.

"We can make up for the disappointment at Peterborough by getting back to playing for the full 90 minutes to get the result, not just the 45.

"Blackpool are a great passing team, their manager has been magnificent for them and they've had some great results. We both like to play football, so it should be a great game to watch.

"It was a shame about the Bristol City game, but once the ref made his inspection, he saw that quite a lot of the pitch was frozen and he had no alternative but to call the game off.

"We knew to expect a hard game over there, and it will be no different when we are due to play again next Tuesday. It would be great to be involved in a good Cup run. A couple of seasons ago, Cardiff showed what they can do in the FA Cup, and we'd love to do it again.

"They'll be looking for revenge after we beat them 3-0 here in August. We're due to meet them a couple of times over the next few weeks with a League game coming up as well, so we can expect tough competition. They are derby matches and they will be looking to put one over on us."