Mansfield Town fans rally around to clear One Call Stadium of snow

The supporters were joined by first team players and club ground staff and took around 40 minutes to clear the pitch ahead of Tuesday night’s match with Lincoln City.

Head groundsman Michael Merriman described the fans turn out as magnificent.

He said: “I put a call out Friday, you usually expect a few turning up. 20 -30 you’d be thankful for that, but there is over 100 here. Its a great turn out.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it on our own, there is two of us groundstaff. We would never got it done on our own.

“It will be fine for Tuesday, they are actually going to train on it,”

He also spoke about what the fans had to do to clear the pitch.

“There was three inches of snow over the frost covers and then obviously pull the frost covers back which anyone who has will know that when they are wet and sloppy they weigh an absolute tone,” he added.

“I couldn’t be more thankful, if I could I would buy them all a drink, but I don’t get paid enough to do that.”

Fan Michael Kozlowski, who helped clear snow from the pitch in 1969 when the club played against West Ham, said: “I came down to see what was going off and to see if I could help and hopefully see the team play.”

Phil Ball came down to the club with his friend Terry King and said: “I’m a long time season ticket holder, it’s a big season and we need a big push, I wanted to get it dug out and hopefully get a game on Tuesday.

“We usually play golf on a Sunday morning, but obviously we lost that so we needed some excersise and somehting to do.”

Tom O’Sullivan said: “I have come down here with my son. We are praying for the next few matches that we will be singing after glory.

“I had a buzz helping out today and that shows how Mansfield loves their club.”

Stags will move in to the automatic promotion places if they win and Notts County failed to claim all three points.

The match is an all-ticket affair and tickets cannot be purchased on the day of the game. Visit www.stagstickets.co.uk to get your tickets.

Follow www.chad.co.uk for match report and reaction.