A large stag was spotted on West Nottinghamshire College’s all-weather sports pitch at the Derby Road campus in Mansfield.

But this stag came with the distinctive markings of a blue and yellow football kit, and was helping students with a fundraising initiative.

Mansfield Town Football Club’s mascot Sammy The Stag took to the pitch in a penalty shoot-out challenge organised by students on the Stepping Stones course, to raise cash for Cancer Research UK.

Sammy kindly stepped in as goalkeeper while staff and students took their penalty kicks at 30p a go or tried to score four goals for £1.

Stepping Stones student Connor Blades, 16, said: “We came up with this idea as we wanted to really help a charity, so we started to put a plan together and worked well as a team. We chose Cancer Research UK as a few of us have had family members pass away with cancer, so it’s very important to help such a charity.

“Everyone’s been amazing coming to take part in scoring against Sammy The Stag and we’re very grateful to Mansfield Town Football Club for letting him come along.”

Supporter Liaison Officer at MTFC, Danielle Hett, said: “We do things like this quite often to help the community or any charities which need Sammy’s support! It’s been great to see the students at West Notts and have so many come down in this good weather and try to score some goals against our mascot.”

The group raised over £63 through the penalty shoot-out event and money from the prize draw to win two free tickets to an MTFC game and a signed football.