Mansfield Town boss Nigel Clough wonders if football missed a trick when matches were called off following the death of the Queen

Clough, who saw Stags' home clash with Bradford City postponed, said he totally understood and accepted the decision, but having seen other sports continue and allow their fans to publicly show their respect and appreciation for their monarch, he wonders if the rest of football was a little hasty in following the Premier League's decision.

“It's been pretty solemn and sad few days for everybody,” he said.

“We were training on Friday at 11am so we only found out just after that the game would not go ahead. So we gave the lads a weekend off.

“I think everyone probably needed that and I completely understand the decision to cancel all the games.

“The only slight counter to that is whether it would have given football an opportunity to come together on Saturday and pay their respects.

“One thing people tend to do and want to do with such a feeling of loss is to come together. People gather wherever they can.

“When I saw the scenes at the cricket and other sporting events I just had a nagging doubt and thought we could have done something similar – either football as a whole or even just on an individual club basis for our supporters to get together and pay their respects.

“I saw Manchester United's game on Thursday night – it was too late to cancel the game – and seeing the way it was observed and respected by everybody, it would have been nice in some way to have done something similar over the weekend.

“With playing in Europe you saw the respect the Spanish fans showed too, it goes beyond any nationality.”

He continued: “I don't know how many people watch football on a Saturday at all levels, it must be a million or something like that. People like to be together at sad times and I think it would have been an opportunity for football to do that, though we still have that opportunity this week.

“We were close to a sell-out on Saturday and it would have been an opportunity for our fans to get together along with the Bradford City fans and show what it meant.

“But I completely understand either way.”