Late chance for Hucknall Town fans to see the Yellows live

The Yellows were planning to start work on the pitch after this Saturday's behind-closed-doors home friendly with Sherwood Colliery

But with Government Covid 19 restrictions being eased on Monday, it was decided to end the curtailed season on a bright note now that a limited number of fans are to be allowed in.

“We have no idea on the numbers allowed in – that still has to be clarified – but it will be good to end the season like this.” said manager Andy Graves

Hucknall had hoped Bingham Town would provide the opposition, but they now have a cup tie that night so Ilkeston Town U23s will visit instead.

“The last time we had fans in was against Kimberley back in November so it's been a long time,” he added. “It will be our last game as we are now having a good break to get the pitch sorted.

“The chairman wanted to get the seed down this weekend but we've agreed to hold on for a few days to enable us to fit this in.

“We are then back on 19th June for pre-season when we will do two weeks of fitness before we start playing friendlies.

"We had no plans for another friendly after this weekend, but I just thought it would be nice to move the pitch work and let our fans in as they haven't seen any football for so long and then we can start preparing properly for the new season. It helps us draw a line under this season.”

Graves said it would be interesting to see if having fans back affects the performance of any of his players.

“Some of them have been playing really well, but maybe they have been trying things they would not normally have done and be too nervy to do it in front of fans,” he said. “We have seen it happening in the Premier League.”

Graves intends doing a Q&A session with fans before Tuesday’s game at around 6.45pm with the match kicking off at 7.45pm.

Saturday's friendly against Selston was postponed due to heavy rain and played on Wednesday instead, Hucknall winning 3-1 through Joe Ashurst (2) and Brad Lathall.