Chasetown cup date is set

Chasetown FC's big FA Cup third round tie with Cardiff will go ahead on Saturday, January 5.The club are "99.9 per cent" confident the game will be played at their tiny ground – but a final decision has been delayed until Thursday.

Officials from both clubs – including safety staff from Cardiff – the Football Association and Staffordshire Police met for three hours at the ground yesterday to plan safety for the tie.

The clubs have now gone away to prepare a plan to satisfy the safety concerns before all parties meet again. The kick-off time still has to be decided but the quality of the lighting is one area of concern.

Police have brought forward Walsall's tie against Millwall to 2pm on the Saturday to help avoid potential clashes with rival fans.

Chasetown secretary and chief executive Mick Joiner said: "We had a constructive meeting where everyone with concerns had their say.

"We couldn't put everything into a plan until everyone had had their say.

"That's now happened, and, with Cardiff's help, we're going away and meeting again on Thursday where we hope we can come up with something acceptable to everyone. Cardiff are doing everything to help us."

The three areas of concern all the relevant bodies have to approve before Chasetown can stage the tie are segregation, evacuation and crowd control.

They have to be assured no fan can get from one stand to another. Cardiff fans will have to be segregated by fences.

Chasetown will give fans the option of buying tickets where they want but supporters will have to stay in the designated area.