Mansfield Friendly Postponed

Field Mill Trip Off
By Chris O'Brien
July 8 2004

The Bluebirds' pre-season game against Mansfield Town on July 24th has been postponed on police advice. The Nottinghamshire police force felt that Mansfield's decision to play four high-profile friendlies in the space of 10 days was too much for them to handle.

City's pre-season friendly against Mansfield Town at Field Mill has been postponed on police advice. The game had been scheduled to take place on Saturday July 24th, but the Bluebirds will now be looking for a new friendly on this date after Nottinghamshire Police ordered the game to be called off.

Stoke City, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers are all taking on Mansfield in friendlies, and the prospect of 4 home friendlies in 10 days was to much for the local police. The force voiced concerns that they would not be able to properly steward all four matches over such a short period of time, and as a result the Bluebirds will not be making the trip to Field Mill.

I'm not quite sure what the Nottinghamshire Police were expecting, as even though the visit to Mansfield was City's only away weekend friendly arranged, we would have been unlikely to take many more than 100 supporters. Still, the club will now hopefully look to arrange another pre-season game for July 24th as preparations for the new season starting in August get underway.

The cancellation leaves the senior sides pre-season games currently looking like this:
Tuesday 20th July - Chester City (Away)
Tuesday 27th July - Yeovil Town (Away)
Thursday 29th July - Cheltenham Town (Away)
Saturday 31st July - Racing Santander (Home)
Tuesday 3rd August - Forest Green Rovers (Away)