HOSPITALITY areas at St Mary's football stadium have been shut in a bid to contain a severe sickness bug that has already spread more than 100 miles away from Southampton.

As revealed in the Daily Echo yesterday, a vomiting bug - believed to be the Norwalk virus - has swept through the club affecting more than 50 guests and staff.

That figure has now doubled as people from as far afield as Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire have reported being sick following visits to St Mary's to watch Southampton's home defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday.

The bug was originally thought to have been contained among people at charity and business functions held at the club on April 9, 11 and 12.

Following yesterday's report more than 20 incidents of illness have been reported by Daily Echo readers who attended Saturday's match day hospitality at the Mike Channon suite.

Parts of the first floor at the stadium have been shut for two days for emergency cleaning.

Ian Stark travelled from Buckinghamshire to Saturday's match with his wife Donna to enjoy the club's hospitality suite for Mr Stark's 34th birthday.

He said: "On Sunday my wife came down with very bad sickness.

"The event was a special occasion and you don't expect to get so ill.''

Mrs Stark was yesterday still too ill to return to work .

Health chiefs at Southampton City Council are awaiting the results of tests to determine exactly what the infection is.

A Southampton Football Club spokesman said events scheduled to take place today and Thursday in first floor hospitality rooms would be accommodated elsewhere in the stadium.

He said: "Working closely with environmental health bosses from Southampton City Council, Saints are confident that they have contained the virus to two areas within the corporate suites at the club.

"Importantly, the areas affected do not include the stadium's concourse and spectators from Saturday's match against Aston Villa are not thought to have been at risk of infection.

"Measures have been in place for some time to tackle the affected zones and it is now thought to be a matter of days before the infection is eradicated."

THE FANS' EXPERIENCES:

For avid Saints fan Lynn Fisk Saturday's match against Aston Villa was supposed to be a dream come true.

A £160 package to eat and drink at the ground's Mike Channon suite had been a Christmas present from husband Wayne - but it wasn't only defeat that upset her stomach.

Mrs Fisk, 43, from Hythe, began to feel ill on Sunday evening and called environmental health yesterday.

"It began with my stomach not feeling quite right," she said. "Then I woke up in the early hours of the morning being very sick and with diarrhoea.

"I had terrible cramps and my whole body was aching like mad. It lasted for most of Monday. We had been looking forward to it for such a long time."

Other victims included five members of staff at Exxon Mobil oil refinery in Fawley who had been treated to match day hospitality at the club on Saturday.

David Glasspool, a Barratt Homes employee from Bitterne, is one of six Barratt workers who has suffered with the virus since watching Saturday's match from the Mike Channon suite.

Mr Glasspool, 45, said: "I felt funny on Sunday but all through the night it just hit me, I was vomiting and in a lot of pain."