Hawks boss Doswell reveals ‘madness’ that ended up with National League instructing Eastbourne to visit Westleigh Park this weekend

Paul Doswell gave an insight into the 'madness' Hawks faced in order to rearrange their National League South meeting with Eastbourne Borough tomorrow.
Godfrey Poku is one of four Hawks players who are still self-isolating with Covid-19. Photo by Dave HainesGodfrey Poku is one of four Hawks players who are still self-isolating with Covid-19. Photo by Dave Haines
Godfrey Poku is one of four Hawks players who are still self-isolating with Covid-19. Photo by Dave Haines

The club's staff and players only had it confirmed the fixture with Borough at Westleigh Park would go ahead after training yesterday.

Hawks were keen to reschedule a league fixture at short notice following Altrincham's decision to forfeit their FA Trophy third round tie because of a positive coronavirus case.

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Initially, both National League South rivals Eastbourne and Chippenham Town, who had free weekends, turned down requests to play.

However, once league officials had got involved, Danny Bloor's Borough were told to travel across the Sussex-Hampshire border.

Boss Doswell, who only welcomed his squad back for training after a 10-day self-isolation period on Wednesday, insisted the whole situation summed up the 'madness' that surrounds the club.

‘We asked both Eastbourne and Chippenham, as they weren’t playing (this weekend), whether they’d play us and they both said no,' he revealed.

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‘We then rang the league, our CEO Stuart Munro did, and he said it was crazy to risk another midweek game in February getting called off when we could play on Saturday.

‘Last night (Wednesday), we had no game (on Saturday). We turned up for training this morning and both teams said no.

'We train and then after training we’re told the league have told Eastbourne to play us.

‘It just sums up the madness of this world at the moment - in terms of our football anyway.

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‘I just hope there’s some more common sense because if I was in Chippenham’s or Eastbourne’s position I would have played us all day long.

‘It’s a good time to play us.

‘We’re probably undercooked, we’ve got four players out through Covid.

‘If I’m looking at Havant, I’m wanting to play Havant now with not playing for 10 days and knowing that we’re not full strength.'

Sam Magri, Godfrey Poku, Theo Widdrington and loanee Leon Chambers-Parrillon remain away from the group after positive coronavirus tests.

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Hawks are now testing all players and staff at the club on a weekly basis.

That began at the Westleigh Pub yesterday where, fortunately, all tests returned a negative result.

Doswell stressed testing, which is being paid for by the club, is critical for the safety of players and staff.

‘The whole staff and players were negative which was really good,' he added.

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‘We just feel it’s right, we have to do it for our players and the staff, safety is more important than money.

‘Credit to Stuart Munro, he went out and sourced them and got them sorted.

‘Tim Mellor and Lyn Mellor, who's our vice-chairman, he’s a specialist cancer doctor and she’s a nurse, so both of them gave up their time with Stuart to do it for us.

‘It’s just everyone at the club pulling together.

‘I’ve never known so many players holding their breath this morning just praying.'

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Hawks have only played once in the league since winning 3-0 at Ebbsfleet on December 12 - a 4-2 Westleigh Park victory against Hungerford on January 2.

Six of their last seven league games have been called off due to the pandemic, leaving Hawks having only played 10 matches in 2020/21 - fewer than any of the other 65 clubs across the three divisions of the National League.

After tomorrow’s match, Hawks will have played eight home NL South games and only three on their travels.