Wait goes on for Hucknall Town to christen new stadium

Hucknall's pitch at the brand new RM Stadium was frozen last weekend. Photo: Hucknall Town FC.

Hucknall Town’s wait to christen their new stadium will go on following another postponement last weekend – but four home games in 11 days to start the new year will finally give Yellows fans their fix.

The game with Bourne Town on Saturday suffered a similar fate to that with Blackstones the week before, the RM Stadium pitch not having thawed out enough after the recent cold snap.

That means Hucknall still haven’t played since the 2-1 win at Radford on December 3.

A charity match between the club’s first team and a Hucknall Town Select side is now due to be the first game on the new pitch on December 27, before league games with Harrowby United (Jan 7), the rescheduled clash with Bourne Town (Jan 11), West Bridgford (Jan 14) and Grantham Town Academy (Jan 18) get things under way.

And for boss Andy Ingle, it’s a case of making the most of the opportunities when they finally come.

He said: “We just want to play and it’ll be like a late Christmas present when we do given the new ground and how long it’s been since we played.

"We want to make it feel like home as soon as we can and then use that to the usual kind of advantage – it might be a little bit strange to start with but the lads have been amazed by what they’ve seen and it’ll be good to break the monotony of so many away games which just don’t have the same atmosphere.

"Once we settle and with so many home games to come, there’s no reason we can’t cement our place in the top five and create a good gap.”

Tuesday’s charity game is raising funds and donations of food for the Hucknall Food Bank. Entry is free and more details are available via the club website.

There will be a match at around 11am involving the club’s under-7s, 8s and 9s prior to the main game which kicks off at 12.30pm.

And the match has ended up being a useful one for Ingle to utilise given the recent lack of matches.

He said: “A few will be missing due to Christmas family commitments, which is fine as there wasn’t initially a match on this date, but we’ve got a lot of lads who need some minutes and others who we want to take a look at from the reserve and Sunday sides.

"So it’ll be a competitive game and with it being an inter-club game plenty will want to prove a point, so it’s worked out well.”