Today is the day! Shrewsbury Town set to welcome 1,000 fans for Northampton clash
Shrewsbury Town will today welcome 1,000 supporters to Montgomery Waters Meadow for their clash with Northampton Town after their request to take part in an English Football League pilot was approved
Fans will be able to to attend the Shrews' first home game of the Sky Bet League One campaign.
A statement from the club said: "We are delighted to announce that permission has now been granted for Shrewsbury Town to be a pilot.
"A lot of work has gone in over recent weeks to ensure all four stands were ready to be open whilst adhering to the new guidance and social distance guidelines which would allow a crowd of 2,500-3,000 but with just 1,000 we have to quickly adapt our plans and get approval from our local SAG (Safety Advisory Group) to support our application."
Due to the very limited time constraints, tickets were made available to all Season Ticket Holders, Sovereign members and Box holders for the West Stand on a first-come-first-served basis.
CEO Brian Caldwell commented on how he was pleased to be given the opportunity to host a pilot game but given the very tight time frame explained how he understands the frustration some supporters might feel should they be unsuccessful in obtaining a ticket.
He said: “We’ve had to work with an extremely tight time frame so we have had no choice but to go with a first come first served basis as we just don’t have the time to ensure everyone is distributed a ticket for entry at the soft ticket checks to enter the stadium footprint.
"On top of that, we will then need to find out who wasn’t lucky enough to get a ticket so we can ensure they are sent a unique code by email to watch the live stream free on ifollow for today’s game.
"However it's great that we can at least accommodate 1,000 season ticket holders, we won't be supplying eg players families etc with tickets as we want to maximise the number of season ticket holders able to get to the game’
“We were very surprised to be given this opportunity so close to the game with the recent extension of restrictions. However, we were always hoping to get the green light at some stage as so much work has gone on behind the scenes to make sure we can welcome some supporters back at the earliest opportunity.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of our Safety Advisory Group for assisting and supporting STFC with our application in such a tight timescale."
