If you go past St Mary's Stadium you will be surprised to see that it is now completely fenced off to ensure that only those authorised to do so will be able to enter the inside of the ground.

It's lock down at St Mary's with large barriers completely surrounding the stadium, these solid walls have been erected around the entirety of the stadium and stand roughly 8ft tall with what is believed to be one entrance in and out of the compound.

All Premier League clubs will have green, amber and red zones and will need to control who has access to the stadium.

As the stadium is on a road rather the club have erected the barrier to make it easier to control access to the site, although to be honest aside from the Brittania Road front of the stadium it can easily be sealed off on the other three sides.

The red zone will be the most severely restricted area and includes places such as the pitch, the tunnel, technical areas, changing rooms.

These areas will be limited to 105 people maximum, which includes players, coaching staff, match officials and all the essential match day staff only.

The amber zone will be restricted to the minimum number of staff required to meet the minimum contractual requirements for broadcasting, media and club staff and finally the green zone outside the stadium on the areas such as the Car park which will be needed for the needs of those allowed in the stadium and for parking of TV broadcasting trucks etc.

St Mary's is listed as being one of four possible neutral venues to be used for some of the high profile games earmarked by the authorities, whether these barriers are due to the need for the stadium to be even more secure for these games and at possible short notice is not yet clear.

Certainly these venues which could have increased risk of fans of the two teams congregating need to be more secure than those for normal games.

The building of this miniature version of the Berlin Wall which also sprung up almost overnight from nowhere as well hits home that the comeback of football in England is near and a reality.

Photo: Action Images

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