How non league players and coaches were affected by covid.

Covid-19, that damn word. For the past 20 months we’ve been ravaged by Covid-19 and with the new Omicron variant on the rise and new restrictions in place it’s yet again looking bleak for the United Kingdom. With this in mind there is a small chance the country could be placed in another lockdown and that may mean another suspension for the non league football clubs.

And with another potential lockdown on the way, those of us who support our local non league club may be devastated that they can’t watch and support the club at a live game, while those of us who support a league club; especially Premier League and Championship teams may be able to watch their clubs games on television, and while it seems unfair to us who’ll be unable to watch the non league games and may even see a suspension to a third successive season, the clubs and those employed by the clubs would certainly suffer from games being forced to be behind doors or completely stopped altogether which certainly benefits no one, even those in the Premier League struggle without fans in grounds and with 11 clubs performing better away from home it is clear the lack of hostility away teams faced during last season definitely made it easier for teams to perform away from home.

With many non league clubs relying on money from tickets and sponsorships with a complete stoppage of another season would be devastating for many clubs, one club in particular; Droylsden was unavailable to field a team this season due to financial difficulty however they did host halloween parties so this leads to hope for fans to be able to play again next season; Speaking to Redditch United coach Josh Wright he stated that it’s obviously a great thing for fans to be back as it not only provides a great atmosphere it also provides a nice financial boost for the club. The Redditch United players also agreed that it is great to have fans back in the ground as it creates a great atmosphere around the club and makes the players want to push harder to perform better in front of a crowd.

While it obviously wasn’t fun for us to be locked down and not have our local non league cubs play, Wright said the small break allowed him to revitalise himself and his love for coaching and football as a whole which makes his whole job of coaching a lot more enjoyable and fun to do when stepping onto the pitch with players which is a sentiment shared amongst the players to be able to enjoy the small things as it doesn’t settle in how much of your day to day life is actually taken up by football when you play/coach at a non league club as you have to balance it with a full time job to support yourself so it becomes just another thing in your weekly routine which can eventually sap the love for the sport out of you.

With the closure of training facilities for everyone around the country it was obviously hard for the average person to stay fit and in shape and get into a slump, which made it harder for Wright and the players to stay match fit and match sharp for an eventual return even if cut slightly short due to another lockdown in November 2020. Wright stated it was hard for him personally to motivate players to do cardio work or ball work over Zoom due to a lack of games for the players to work towards, and connections with the players and the players within themselves as a team dropped as they were off site so they chose not to attend the zoom lessons and sessions to try and stay sharp and fit.

Wright also stated that with a shutdown to the season last year certainly “favoured” the men’s side of the club as they were on a poor run and stopped them having to worry about any sort of relegation that season which would certainly help financially, however the women’s side of the club were top of the league and when that got cancelled were rightfully annoyed as they were gunning for promotion. Players were also annoyed when the season got cancelled as they had worked hard over the previous months to get back into playing regular football and when it got cancelled were also rightfully annoyed with it.

With Covid cases soaring and more and more press conferences from Boris himself it’s looking bleak for those of us who support our non league local clubs. The Premier League have postponed games, The EFL have postponed games, covid outbreaks within clubs especially Tottenham, a small break of two weeks is looming over but will it be done is the real question? I certainly think not as the leagues and big clubs will miss out on too much money over the festive games, and the players are unlikely to self isolate if we have a 2 week breaker to try and slow the spread of the new Omicron variant between the clubs.

All in all, another lockdown may devastate certain clubs and would certainly make it again harder for players and coaches to try and refind the love for the sport if it got shut down for a 3rd successive season.