FA Cup Game To Be Played Behind Closed Doors

29th October 2020

Cheltenham Town Ladies’ Vitality Women’s FA Cup clash with Portishead Town has been moved, and will now not be able to welcome supporters.

The game, originally scheduled for The Big Local Stadium, The Robinesses were hoping to stir up a crowd as they looked to secure a place in the First Round Proper. However, due to the heavy rain in Cheltenham throughout Wednesday and parts of Thursday, the pitch at The Big Local Stadium has developed standing water, which causes a danger to player and match official safety.

The match is now set to take place at Tewkesbury School on its 3G surface.

Due to requests from Tewkesbury School surrounding safety concerns, the venue change now means that the club can no longer welcome fans to the game.

The club’s Head of Media, Dan Lodge commented “It’s not ideal. We were really hoping for a bit of a buzz around the club. Naturally we would’ve loved to have welcomed fans back again after the past couple of wins, but we are still in the middle of pandemic and the school want to guarantee the safety of their pupils, which is something I’m sure we can all understand.

“We apologise to fans, both ours and Portishead’s, but given the circumstances we must respect the wishes of the host venue especially when it pertains to health and safety concerns.

We’ll still be covering the game through social media, so we’ll be working as hard as ever to make sure our supporters can still follow the action.”

For real-time match coverage, follow our twitter page, @CTLadies. You can also check the club’s Facebook and Instagram for half time and full time scores.


D2 Interactive