Ian Richards has contingency plans in place if the Penistone Church is decimated by absences related to rising covid-19 cases.
Fears are rising that the start of the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season will be disrupted as the government are predicting figures reaching 100,000 daily cases in the next four weeks.
Given the number of postponements of various Non League friendly fixtures due to outbreaks in the past seven days, problems are bound to mount.
Even professional county cricket clubs are struggling to fulfil fixtures because of covid and Richards is prepared for the worst case scenario.
“It is interesting as they (the Government) remove and reduce restrictions, covid cases will go up,” Richards told Non League Yorkshire.
“It won’t affect schools, but football it will.
“I think (Stocksbridge Park Steels manager) Chris Hilton made the comment that teams are going to need a huge squads.
“What we have here is a really good reserve side so if we do need to call on players we’ll call on those reserve lads who I know won’t let us down.
“From a football club point of view we’ll always be able to get a strong eleven or 16 out so I have no worries.
“I just hope it (the potential disruption) doesn’t disjoint the season again. We need to get some momentum.
“Off-the-field (if there is disruption and volunteers are unable to attend) it comes down to our community and we pride ourselves within our community.
“We don’t want to be short and I hope we will be ok. We have a number of people who will step in and support on a short-term basis.”
Richards has been almost as quiet as a mouse this summer on the recruitment front.
Campion left-winger Leon Hurles-Brook is on the brink of signing for Church and he joins two other returning faces on the incoming board.
“It has been really slow and we’ve been finding it difficult to recruit,” Richards said.
“I haven’t tried to sign lots of people, but those I have identified have made decisions to stay where they are or go somewhere for more money or to stay more local.
“We’re used to it and we used to being patient and waiting.
“Leon Hurles-Brook is hopefully going to sign. I just have to agree one-or-two things with him.
“I spoke to him at the weekend and he’s really keen to come.
“Obviously his connection with Jordan Coduri, Kieran Ryan and Tom Brennan has helped.
“We have a couple of lads coming back from holiday. Hopefully Kurt Turner will be here on Thursday.
“Brett Lovell is getting closer to match fitness and James Young has returned (from Dodworth) along with Tom Brennan (who has returned from Campion).
“It has been quiet (on the recruitment front) and we’re still a couple of players short from where I’d like to be, but we have a strong squad which is capable of challenging.”
Brennan and Hurles-Brook appeared in the 2-2 draw with Worsbrough Bridge on Tuesday night.
Church were on course for victory until Worsbrough equalised with the last kick of the game.
For Richards, it was an evening of mixed emotions.
“It was a frustrating end to the game,” he said.
“I was more frustrated with the first half as we were little flat and we didn’t have any structure to our play.
“Pre-season is about developing good habits and good principles of play and we didn’t really do it in the first half and we deserved to go 1-0 down.
“There was a good reaction with the goal from Jordan Coduri and we got better as the half went on.
“With a different formation and different personnel I thought we were good in the second half and I thought we deserved to win it 1-0.
“Obviously you want to win every game and it was frustrating they scored with the last kick of the game.
“If three points were at stake or progression into the next round of a cup you would be really disappointed.
“But there was enough in that second half that I was really pleased with.”
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.
Our work is playing 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.
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.
