Bristol Rovers' pre-season schedule continues on Saturday with a friendly against Championship side Swansea City, but Gasheads and home fans alike are not permitted to attend.
The fixture is being played behind closed doors at the Swans' Fairford training base at the request of the home side. And with no live streaming arrangements put in place by the hosts, Rovers fans have just one more chance to see their team in action ahead of the new season – Tuesday's visit of Stoke City to the Mem.
The reasoning behind Swansea's decision is two-fold, according to Wales Online. Firstly, the Swansea.com Stadium is not ready to host games after Elton John performed his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show in front of more than 24,000 people last month.
Secondly, manager Russell Martin wants to limit the amount of travelling his players do in pre-season – the 9,930 miles Swansea will rack up in the Championship is more than any other second-tier club – and games at the training ground offer both convenience and a chance to experiment behind closed doors.
"The behind-closed-doors fixtures serve a purpose for a couple of reasons really," he explained. "Our pitch isn't ready at the Swansea.com Stadium.
"We don't want to do a huge amount of travelling in pre-season because we've got to do a hell of a lot of during the season anyway. We've got two away games [this summer] where we have to travel and get into the flow of that again, but we don't want to do too much of that in pre-season because it's physically very demanding.
"We have some brilliant pitches at Fairwood that we can use, we can experiment and really have a look at things, so they really serve a purpose.
"But you can't replicate it with crowds. Charlton will be good for us as well. We have one before that against Bristol Rovers."
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