Hawks boss Doswell: We made a mistake losing so much experience last year

Clubs in the National League South and North found out the 2020-21 campaign had been declared null and void last night, with a 25-18 majority of step two teams voting in favour of stopping.

But manager Paul Doswell revealed he and the Westleigh Park board had started discussions over next term even before the verdict was delivered.

Doswell admitted the inevitability of the season being scrapped in the wake of the funding crisis had given the club a chance to assess the 'rights and wrongs' of a campaign brought to a premature conclusion amid the pandemic.

He conceded he had assembled a squad that missed 'experience' this term and that is a 'mistake' he might look to address moving forward.

And he will be getting to work on drawing up a list of targets and speaking to his current squad on their futures almost immediately.

Doswell said: ‘We sort of started planning last week in terms of players staying, players that we’re targeting and what our ambitions are.

‘We’ve known for two or three weeks and, from our point of view, it’s been a chance to really look at what we got right this season and what we got wrong. Rectify the wrongs, bring in two or three players that we feel we need, we miss the experience that we had last year and in hindsight that might have been a mistake to lose that much experience.’

Doswell’s 2019/20 squad was packed with experienced players such as Nicky Bailey, Andy Drury, Dean Beckwith and Wes Fogden.

But all four were let go after their late July play-off semi-final loss - the first three being released and Fogden allowed to join divisional rivals Dorking.

‘We’re looking at everything and that work will start now. It gives us March, April and May to make the phone calls and see who is about,’ said Doswell.

‘You get your list of targets and we’ll start that work immediately.

‘I’m sure that the players will want to come in earlier than they would normally.

‘It was the biggest problem this season, we only had three weeks pre-season, it wasn’t long enough.'

Hawks refrained from entering talks with any of the current squad on their futures until a decision was reached on the outcome of the season.

But now a null and void verdict has been reached, Doswell says it allows the club to start planning for 2021-22.

'We were clearly waiting for this decision to come,' he remarked.

‘At the end of the day, it’s null and void which pretty much means everyone’s contracts are finished in National League step two.

‘If the National League stops then that’s most people’s (contracts), very few people have got two-year contracts; it does enable you when the leagues have actually stopped - ours has now stopped - it does allow you to do it.'

Despite the season now being over, Hawks’ players contracts will run until the first week of May.

The squad will now be placed on furlough, with the Government paying 80 per cent of their wages until the job retention scheme finishes at the end of April.