Dodworth Miners Welfare manager Darren Young is relieved that the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League clubs can continue playing after a confusing day.
The Sheffield FA issued guidance today in response to the Government placing South Yorkshire into the Tier 3 lockdown rules. They originally said clubs in the four parts of South Yorkshire could not travel to a different part (for example Barnsley to Sheffield). It meant the County Senior League was facing at least a 28-day suspension.
Two hours later the Sheffield FA changed the guidance which should allow the County Senior League to keep playing. Doubts remain over Wakefield AFC and Hepworth United though as they are currently in Tier 2 areas.
“We’re glad that there is more clarity and we’re all relieved that we can still play football,” Young told Non League Yorkshire.
“Changing the guidelines now didn’t make sense because we could have a full lockdown in the next two months and this would have been an unwanted suspension.
“The original guidelines would have left the season in ruins unless we were able to just play the other Barnsley teams (Wombwell Main, North Gawber, Penistone Church reserves and Houghton Main). But that would have brought its own challenges as all the players would have had to have been from Barnsley and so would the referees. We have a player who lives in Rotherham so we wouldn’t have been able to play him.
“We’ve been getting second hand information so we don’t know how things were decided, but it looks like there’s been that much of a backlash from the first announcement that they’ve changed their minds. People on Twitter were saying it didn’t make sense.
“They’ve made the guidelines more clearer. They are not going to work for everyone, but it works for 99% of teams in the league and that’s got to be a good thing. The last two hours for me have been all about football and people ringing each other just for clarity because no-one had the answers. Common sense has prevailed and everyone is happy.
“No-one wants these guidelines, but it is something we have to live with and we have to make the best out of a bad situation. The Sheffield FA could have been stubborn and not done anything about it, but it shows you that have listened and reviewed it. I think you have to commend them.”
Although pleased to receive a reprieve, Young admits he expects the campaign to be disrupted in the coming weeks or months with Coronavirus rates going up.
“The way it is going is towards a national thing,” he said.
“We’re expecting it to be suspended at some point and I think every team is expecting a break. This (the original guidance) just felt like it was premature.
“We’re going to get to a point where our hand is forced and nationally we see a suspension.
“If we’d been stopped now for 28-days we would have been into December when games get called for bad weather and then into January. Where would we have gone?
“I think we’ll get the season done, but I don’t know how it will finish? I’m pretty confident the season will finish. I don’t think they’ll do what they did last season (expunge) and we also still have plenty of time to finish it because we could potentially play until June.”
Dodworth can now carry on their dazzling start to the Premier Division season. The Barnsley-based side are top of the table after five wins and one draw. Young’s men thrashed a decent Jubilee Sports side 7-0 on Saturday to continue their fine start which has delighted him.
“We’ve started really well and we’re starting to play well,” he said.
“We hadn’t been playing well in games for 90 minutes, but I think in the last three weeks we have started putting performances together.
“(On Saturday) against Jubilee, who are a good team, we showed what we are capable of. The score-line flattered us, but it was the way we dominated them and stopped them playing and how we took our chances. On a week on Saturday we play Swinton and that will give us a good idea where we are this season.
“We’ve talked about that Swinton are benchmark and it will be good to have a game against them to see exactly where we stand in the league and to see whether we are serious competition to them.
“If you look at our midfield and attack it is fairly a new squad. Our front three are brand new to the team so it was always going to take time to get it right and remember Jack Owen hadn’t played in six months.
“The pleasing thing for us is that we have conceded only one all season which was in the first game of the season. So we’ve only conceded one goal in six games which shows if we need to grind out games we can. We’re confident our goals will come through.
“If seven on Saturday is anything to go by, we have turned that corner. In the past we weren’t comfortable defending a 1-0 lead, it looks like we are now.
“The Penistone win was our best performance, apart from the first five minutes. It was early in the season and we were still trying to find our feet and I think we put a statement out there because it showed we can adapt to whatever teams throw at us. If teams want to kick us, we can match that. If they want to play, we can play and at key times we have a bit of quality.”
Dodworth have benefited from the exodus of NCEL players to Step 7. The Owen brothers Jack and Liam, plus the Rollinson brothers Connor and young Calan dropped down to sign down in August and they were joined by Penistone Cnurch defender James Young in September.
Liam Owen has been the star man so far with five goals, including an incredible overhead kick, but Young reserves praise for all original quartet from the NCEL.
“All four signings have been really good signings,” he said.
“Connor, historically a right-back, we brought in because we see him as a holding midfielder and he gives us that platform for the rest of them to play.
“We always knew what quality Liam has and he seems to pop up in big moments for us.
“Then you have Jack who is hitting his straps now and getting fitter and fitter. He looks like the player we knew we were signing.
“Calan has come in and he’s been in the team and he started to score goals.
“We already had quality as well and there’s also been a few surprises. We have put Reece Hawkshaw centre-half this season and he’s probably a big reason why we have only conceded one goal.”
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.