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Archived News from January 2008

PITCH NEWS FOR DARLO GAME
18th January 2008 20:13


Accurate weather forecast from BBC East Midlands Today, updated Fri at 6.55pm:
http://tinyurl.com/23j8yo
Very interesting forecast. Rain all morning for Leicester. No rain for Mansfield on Saturday morning.
Martin

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Darlo game 'should beat weather'
CHAD.co.uk, 18 Jan 2008

MANSFIELD Town's match with Darlington on Saturday is expected to go ahead, say the club.
Heavy rain for the past seven days has left the Mansfield area waterlogged - and any midweek match at Field Mill would have been called off because of the weather.

But on Friday the Stags were confident that the match would beat the weather, even though rain is forecast throughout Friday.

The club has bought a new waterhog to clear the pitch of standing water and a small cover is in place on parts of the pitch.

On Friday morning chief executive Stephen Booth said: "The ground is totally playable at the moment.

"As things stand, I am confident the match will go ahead."

Groundsman Michael Merriman told the club's official website mansfieldtown.net "The pitch is okay at the moment, but we're expecting rain later on today so we'll know more by then.

"The weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow doesn't look too bad so that's good news."

He added: "A new water hog has been bought, which helps get the water off the pitch, so hopefully that will help."

The club is anxious that the match is played as it is hoping for a bumper attendance on the back of its FA Cup ticket offer.

All fans who go to the game against the promotion chasing Quakers - which could see the Stags win a second successive League match for the
first time this season - are guaranteed a ticket for next Saturday's big FA Cup tie with Premiership Middlesbrough.

Next week the Stags are planning to hire a total pitch cover to ensure that the Cup tie, to be televised live on the BBC, beats the weather.

Mr Booth told Chad: "There will be survey talks with the FA over the covers today (Friday). I would expect that we will be hiring covers from Monday or Tuesday."
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GROUNDSMAN Michael Merriman told Evening Post: “The ground is fine at the moment and, touch wood, it will stay that way. We are expecting it to rain for most of today after looking at the forecast, but hopefully it will not be too heavy. It is then due to ease off around midnight and then there is no rain forecast from then until after the game."
Cheshire official Michael Jones is due at Field Mill at around 10am tomorrow, but can be called in earlier if the staging of the game is in doubt.

Full story at http://www.thisismansfieldtown.co.uk

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