Stocksbridge Park Steels manager Chris Hilton believes the FA need to start preparing to provide financial aid to Non League clubs if the Government orders another lockdown.
Fears the country will follow the decisions of the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales in having a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown are growing.
That’s on top of the three tier lockdown system which is affecting many areas and Hilton wants the FA and leagues to begin discussing the financial implications of a shutdown with clubs.
“I think we have some breaks coming,” Hilton told Non League Yorkshire.
“If the Government go the same way as Wales and Scotland and put the country into lockdown then will football continue? Will fans be allowed to go watch football if that happens and it does continue? That’s all questions the FA need to answer and put guidance out there.
“The leagues and the FA need to be talking and thinking about a plan b and even a plan c.
“If there is a short break like a winter break they need to look and maybe extend the finish date got the season. They need to look at financial packages in case games have to be played behind closed games or not at all. They need to find out what clubs make at an average home game.
“They definitely need to look at other plans because it is not a normal season and it is not going to run smoothly from now until the end. We’re going to have towns and cities in Tier 3 and clubs having games called off because of that. Some are going to have it worse than others.
“The financial assistance is something they definitely need to talk about now to help clubs out. If they want us to continue playing games they need to financially support because teams will not survive if they have to play behind closed doors.
“It is not sustainable unless the players turn round and play for nothing. Rightly or wrongly it is not going to happen because they’d also be risking themselves.
“Will they (The FA) start talking now? I don’t think they will. Have they given much support to Non League Football since March? Have they given much guidance? No. It always seems to be the last minute. Yet we’re the clubs allowed to have fans in.
“We have been lucky so far not to lose many clubs, but if they don’t get it right we’ll lose a few more. Again though, it does depend on how long the lockdown lasts for, but if you’ve got clubs with players on contracts, that opens another can of worms.”
Hilton also admits he is surprised games are still taking place in Tier 3 areas.
“I think we said (in the summer) that if get to the end of October without any sort of break or lockdown we’ll have done well and for a manager it is ten times harder than it normally is,” he said.
“What we’ve seen happen to Wales today, I think you can probably see happening to us. Sheff Club have called their game off tomorrow because they’ve got Covid again so that’s the second game they have lost.
“We ask for FA guidance and it says if it is an area in Tier 3 then this level of football is exempt so you can go travel into Tier 3 areas and Tier 3 area clubs can travel out for football which I find really strange.
“That’s unless the local council says you can’t, but the FA guidelines say you can. You’ve seen Cleethorpes refuse to travel in the FA Trophy to a Tier 3 side and I think you’re going to get more of that. Areas are in Tier 3 for a reason.
“I want football to be there and be there for everybody, but what I can’t get my head round is that in Tier 3 you can still play football and have fans in when you shouldn’t be mixing.
“Yeah but you are mixing. I can’t see my dad and have a coffee with him in a house, but yet I can go manage a game with players from multiple houses.”
Back to football matters and Stocksbridge are eleventh in the NPL Division One South East table after winning three and losing three of their opening six games.
“Strange is probably a good word (to describe the start to the season),” he said.
“No consistency, up and down, start-stop. No continuity so it has been a strange start to a season all round. We’ve had players pick up injuries because of the lay-off or they’ve not been available because they’ve had to isolate. That’s happened to me twice already. We couldn’t train before the Stamford game because one of the backroom team has had Covid. Luckily the other three of us had tests afterwards so we were alright. So it has been challenging and strange.
“We played very well live on the BBC (against Stalybridge in the FA Cup) even though we lost. I thought for periods we more than held our own against a team higher up. With a bit of luck we could have won that game.
“The next two games were flat and that might have been because the previous game was built up with the hype of it being on TV. The Kidsgrove game was a terrible game and both teams probably had one shot on target all game and they scored with theirs. It had 0-0 written all over it.
“The Loughborough game we were poor, but it kick-started because we then went to Sheffield FC and won 3-0 and Lincoln 4-3 away from home.
“The Belper game there was a fantastic atmosphere and about 250 people in. Both teams played different ways, but ways that suited them and there were plenty of goals.
“For the neutral it was brilliant. I’d say it was the best performance because of the character. We had just come off the back of a 5-0 drubbing at Stamford so after going 1-0 down after six minutes against Belper, I was more than pleased with how we reacted.”
Hilton now faces further challenges with tonight’s trip to Leek Town looming as three of his star attackers are out injured. It is a situation that has forced him to delve into the transfer market.
“Unfortunately against Belper Joe (Lumsden) came off with a groin injury and he has an operation on the 29th I think so he’ll be out for four weeks after that,” he said.
“Then on Saturday we lost Lewis (Whitham) half-an-hour into the game because of ligament damage so he’ll be missing for four to six weeks. We then lost Josh Nodder before half-time with a hamstring problem.
“The front four against Belper is the four we want on the pitch at the same time and we lost three of them within the space of four days.
“We’ve talking to one potential new signing now and we’ve got another one who we will be contacting to see what we can do. We won’t get them both over the line for Leek, but we’ll get one hopefully over the line for Saturday.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.