City have told fans they have no choice over clashing with the England game on Saturday.

Their home match with Shrewsbury is the only league fixture with the same 3pm kick-off as England’s Euro 2012 qualifier in Wales.

Shrewsbury rejected the chance to switch days and would only agree to a lunchtime kick-off if City paid their bill for an overnight stay, an estimated £2,000-3,000.

City also looked at moving the game back a couple of hours to 5pm but that would have incurred significant extra policing costs.

Joint-chairman Mark Lawn said: “People always go to have a drink to watch England games. For us to catch them after that, I can understand why the police are a bit wary.”

City must tread carefully following recent incidents of items being thrown on the pitch. The Football Association are closely monitoring Valley Parade crowd behaviour.

City anticipate a “ten per cent” drop in attendance, around 1,000 fewer fans, because of the clash – although the high number of season-ticket holders will limit losses.

Lawn added: “Obviously there will be fewer away fans but, to be fair, I don’t think they’d have come if it was a 1pm or 5pm kick-off.

“They might have come Friday night or on Sunday but Shrewsbury weren’t willing to play then. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s got to be a joint effort with both teams and we weren’t prepared to pay that extra money to play at 1pm.”