Lewes boss: We want to play football - but how can we?

Clubs have voted this week on whether to restart league fixtures from next weekend or wait until the government’s tiered lockdown restriction made a restart more viable.

Results of the vote were awaited as the Express went to press but it looked likely that the restart would be delayed.

The latest changes do not stop Lewes Women from continuing their FA Women’s Championship campaign and they are due to host Charlton at The Dripping Pan on Sunday.

A limited number of fans are now allowed at their level.

But hopes of restarting non-league divisions at step three and four have been thrown into chaos by last week’s placing some parts of the country are in Covid tier three – and the fact that even clubs in tier two face restrictions in selling food and drink.

The Isthmian League has a number of teams in Kent, which is in tier three, and that’s one of the reasons clubs were asked whether the restart should be put on hold until all teams were in the same tier.

Lewes men’s team manager Hugo Langton said he could see both sides of the argument. He told us: “We all want to get back to playing and training and as close to normal as we can.

“I can only really comment on the Isthmian premier and we have to be mindful of Margate and Folkestone who are in tier three. You can tell them to play only away games for now, but with no money coming in from having home games and fans, who’s to say they can do that?

“It could cripple them unless they get financial help. Or you might say ‘let everyone else apart from those clubs play’. That’s also unfair.”

If league fixtures don’t begin again until January, Langton fears teams will be thrown back into competitive games with little lead-in time – risking injury lists caused by lack of proper preparation.

Lewes chairman Stuart Fuller has warned we could be without much non-league football fo weeks without more help from the authorities. He said: “The only certainty in non-league football at the moment is uncertainty.”