YORK City's friendly match tomorrow afternoon at Whitby Town will be played behind closed doors, the hosts have announced.

The game had been due to be played in front of supporters with a limited capacity, ,much like York's first pre-season friendly of the 2020/21 season away to South Shields on Tuesday evening.

A Whitby statement read: "After much consultation it is with regret that Public Health England have announced the York City game taking place on Saturday 12 September 2020 will be behind closed doors.

"This announcement comes on the back of a steep rise in Coronavirus cases specifically in the Whitby area over the last 7 days.

"PHE are aware of the mass inconvenience this will cause to the club and all spectators of both teams but in the current climate they have stated they cannot allow the game to take place for health reasons.

"This does not affect future games as hopefully with proper management of the virus in the area Whitby will be able to return to normal operation after this weekend. The club will be in constant contact with both PHE and NYCC over the next week.

"The club will refund all ticket sales on request from those that have purchased tickets for tomorrow's game and apologise for the late notice of the cancellation of spectators being allowed into the game.

"This situation has also caused serious short term financial implications to the club in terms of admin costs, lost revenue and associated operational costs."

York City said on social media that those supporters who purchased tickets for the game should directly contact Whitby for refunds.