Two thousand fans were allowed back in to watch Shrewsbury Town play in League One last night.

They were one of the first clubs allowed to let spectators return because the town is in tier two of the new coronavirus restrictions.

Fans had to pass temperature checks, were allocated seats according to household groups and had to wear face masks.

Half-time refreshments were available, but only outside the ground, which can hold five times as many supporters.

Shrewsbury drew the match against Accrington Stanley 2-2.

For Stoke City's 1-0 win at Wycombe Wanderers in the Championship, there were 1,000 home supporters at Adams Park.

This was a carefully managed test event by Wycombe, the success of having those fans in attendance hopefully meaning double that number can watch the game there against Coventry City on 12 December, chief football writer Phil McNulty said.

Students can begin returning home from university from today.

Image source, Reuters

In the West Midlands, about 122,000 are expected to travel home to another part of the country.

Universities in the region began testing on Monday to check students were Covid-free before departing.

Students will also have staggered starting dates for returning to universities in England after Christmas - with some not back until 7 February.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

It looks set to be an unsettled day with showery outbreaks of rain for many areas and highs of 5°C 41°F).

Welcome to our live service for Thursday.

We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather for the West Midlands.

We love to hear from you so share your news, thoughts and photos of the area with us via email,Twitter , externaland Facebook., external

The Walsall Junior Youth League decided not to resume games despite the end of lockdown.

Investigators found nearly 2,300 calls and messages that Kevin Hathaway exchanged with the woman.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 tomorrow.

Phil Mackie
Midlands correspondent, BBC News

There were nearly 100 people waiting in the socially distanced queue outside Europe’s biggest Primark when it reopened just before 07:00. Most decided to get up early up because they thought it would be safer to come then in case the city became busy later.

The end of lockdown meant the reopening of many stores, including clothes shops.

First in the queue was Emily Harrison, who’d come to buy baby clothes. She said she was "dreading it" and hoped it would stay quiet.

Retailers were hoping that the opposite would be the case. They have spent the past month ensuring everything would safe for the return of shoppers.

"It's so important, and whilst online trading has been brilliant, nothing beats that experience of having customers in the store shopping for their christmas gifts” said Sam Watson, the General Manager of Selfridges.

Birmingham would normally expect about five million people to visit its German Christmas market, but that has been cancelled this year.

The city is in tier three which means the city’s nightlife is closed down and the live gigs and shows that normally bring hundreds of thousands of people to the city are also cancelled.

Few people have returned to their offices too, which means the city centre still seemed quiet despite the shops reopening.

The former Worcester News building is likely to become a new teaching centre for medical students.

Berrows House on Hylton Road is owned by the University of Worcester, and wants to transform the building into an anatomy laboratory, a suite of GP simulation rooms, and a number of seminar and teaching rooms.

Image source, Google

BBC Radio WM Sport

The Birmingham City head coach, Aitor Karanka, said it was "difficult to understand" his team's performance in last night's defeat to Barnsley.

Blues took the lead but went on to lose the match 2-1 - the sixth game in a row in which they've failed to win.

Image source, Getty Images

Afterwards, Karanka accepted "they were better than us", but he couldn't explain his player's poor performance.

He said: "I try pick the best 11 players to try to play good football. Good football players who like to play and we couldn't pass the ball more than two or three times in the first half."

BBC Weather

Temperatures tonight are forecast to drop to just a couple of degrees above freezing, so expect some frost in the morning.

Tomorrow we can expect some showers across a lot of the West Midlands.

Image source, Shaun

Search dogs, metal detectors, armed officers and drones will all be part of the police operation in Birmingham to make sure Christmas shoppers are safe.

West Midlands Police said officers would also work with security staff and shop workers and use a knife arch to detect people carrying bladed weapons.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Insp James Tandy, from the Project Guardian team, said: “With Christmas fast approaching and the shops reopening this week, we’re expecting the city centre to be busy."

BBC Radio Stoke Sport

Port Vale manager John Askey believes his past experience can help the team through their current bad run.

He said: "I went through a spell as a manager when I didn't win for 10 games."

"Things like that hold you in good stead for when things aren't going right."

Image source, Getty Images

Port Vale have now lost five league games in a row and Askey added: "I know the things that we do are correct.

"They were correct when we started the season. They were correct last season and as long as the players keep working hard, eventually it will turn."

Traders say they will only be able to sell products that are not readily available in shops.

BBC Radio WM

A government backed testing pilot specifically for people without Covid-19 symptoms is being extended in Wolverhampton.

The testing centre at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, on Sedgley Street, has tested nearly 2,500 people since it opened on 20 November and 5% returned a positive result.

Image source, Getty Images

It will now stay open until next Tuesday - using tests that can deliver results in under an hour.

Coventry Live

Here are three stories from the Coventry Live website today:

• Cannabis farm with 138 plants found, external
• Martial arts expert tracked down 'lunatic on a rampage', external
• Shops re-open in Coventry city centre, external

A committee of councillors has recommended Stoke-on-Trent councillor Jackie Barnes be reprimanded

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The demolition of a shop in Coventry could open up views of the cathedral, the councillor responsible for city services has said.

It's part of an £11m plan for the Upper Precinct area. Councillor Pat Hetherton called it "the last piece in the jigsaw".

Image source, Google

If councillors back the plans on 8 December, the Ernest Jones site could be closed by the end of January with the demolition work complete by the spring.

The plan also involves the jewellers surrendering its existing lease on the building.

People wait outside Primark in Birmingham from 06:00 GMT as England's lockdown was lifted.

Covid-19 rates have again fallen right across the West Midlands, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

On the day the country moves out of lockdown into the new three-tier regime, all 30 local authority areas in the region recorded falls for the seven days up to 27 November.

Stoke-on-Trent again had the highest rate, with 362.4 new infections per 100,000 people, while Dudley was next worse on 317.8.

Both areas' rates were above 400 just a week earlier.