Only one home friendly planned as Mansfield Town look after new pitch surface

Work began this week on improving a surface that deteriorated badly through the Covid 19 pandemic.

“We have just the one pre-season home fixture pencilled in as we don't want to do too much on the new pitch,” said boss Nigel Clough

“Then on 7th August we could be at home with supporters back in.

“When you are spending as much money as we are on the pitch there is no point in then putting two or three games on it pre-season and it not being right for 7th August.

“So we will just have the one about 10 days before the season starts.”

He continued: “There is a lot of optimism around the return of fans at the moment, which is great.

“Hopefully watching our recent games they will have an appetite for coming back.

“We have just about got our pre-season schedule sorted now and it will be announced hopefully next week.

“They will be mainly local games and so on away from home.

“We didn't want to take any chances with the pitch.”