The mental health of grassroots football spectators has been ignored in the latest guidance for Step 7 football, according to Dodworth Miners Welfare chief Darren Young.
The FA have confirmed the DCMS rules for crowds and it states that only matches on public parks can have spectators until at least the 17th May or unless there is a dramatic u-turn.
The news is a massive blow for the clubs who are competing in the League Cup of the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League and play on private land.
Dodworth are one of those sides so it appears their home matches will have to be played behind closed doors until the situation changes and Young is less than impressed.
“Yeah it is disappointing and they haven’t taken the people who watch these games into account,” Young told Non League Yorkshire.
“It might not be a lot of people, but it is quite important to them to have that structure.
“It is a massive part of people’s lives and it has been overlooked. For those who watch these matches it is the main part of their weekends and they have been excluded.
“You have outside bars opening up on the 12th so I can’t see where the logic is to be honest.
“It is not a massive amount of people who want to watch games, you probably get more people in a park having a picnic and sat closer to each other than 50 people stood around a grassroots football pitch.
“You can easily spread people around.
“I think what would be disappointing as well is if we can’t get spectators in for the final, whether that’s us or two other teams.
“We won the League Cup three years ago and we took half of Dodworth to Emley’s ground. It was the best part of 150 people and people still talk about how good that night was.”
Dodworth’s first behind closed doors Group A home clash is against local rivals Wombwell Town who lost 5-0 at Denaby Main on the curtain-raising weekend.
The heavy defeat would give any future opponent a boatload of confidence, but Young has warned his Dodworth troops to treat Wombwell as a wounded animal.
“Look they have come a long way in three-or-four-years and they could be a Premier team because they had more-or-less won the league last year when it got cancelled,” he said.
“They have made decent strides and from speaking to Karl (Rose) they just want to see where they are as they play us and Oughtilbridge from the Premier and that will help them see what they need for next year.
“It will be a competitive game and it will be good to see where they are at.
“They will be a massively different team to last Saturday. James Dudgeon and Karl Rose will want a reaction from them and I think they’ll get it.
“I don’t think they’ll get a performance like that again.
“I didn’t read anything into the result so I’m expecting to play against the best Wombwell Town team.
“They’ll be looking to make amends and rarely decent teams put in two poor performances in back-to-back.
“I expect them to be flying. Nobody will be expecting them to win after that result so the pressure is kind of off them.
“We have the pressure because we’re expected to win. But if we play well like we did in the second half at Oughtilbridge we’ll be hard to beat.”
The match is also a nice occasion for Young as he is almost life-long friends with Wombwell manager Karl Rose and his assistant James Dudgeon.
“I’ve known them since ’99 when we were at Barnsley together,” he said.
“When I first moved over myself and James rented an apartment together.
“I went to Wombwell Town a couple of years ago and I learnt a lot from them about management so it is good for me to go up against them.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them and for 90 minutes we’ll all want to win, but after that we’ll be friends again.”
Dodworth themselves made a solid bat to their Group A campaign thanks to the 3-1 win at Oughtilbridge. Goals from Danny Barlow, Liam Owen and young starlet Calan Rollinson secured the victory and Young was pleased.
“It was to be expected because of the fitness so it was no surprise that we started slowly and we conceded from a set-piece,” he said.
“We had a couple of chances to clear it, but we didn’t.
“Our lads grew into it and we weren’t under pressure, it just took us 20 minutes to get going.
“We scored from another set-piece – Cal (Rollinson) scored a really good goal – and then we were just comfortable in the game without being exceptional.
“We never felt in any threat of losing the game.
“It was a good game to get a win. Now we have a bit of fitness in the bag, a win and three points to set us up nicely. It is a good start for us.”
Speaking for the first time about the runners and riders for the League Cup, Young added: “Swinton are the favourites and I think there’ll be a few teams who will surprise.
“Penistone have got a really good chance. On their day they can beat anyone.
“Then you have Ecclesfield, a really hard place to go and get results.
“North Gawber’s Group is a really tough one and I wouldn’t want to be in there.
“Handsworth are really strong and will be strong at home.
“Jubilee are strong and so are Hepworth who beat Wakefield in the league a few months.
“We’re not there to make the numbers up, we’re looking to go as far as we can.
“We’re still not out of the group and our group is not easy. People forget that Denaby hadn’t lost a game in the First Division and Wombwell were up there. Oughtilbridge on their day are a good side.”
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. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
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