Lockdown III – where it leaves our local non-league clubs with regards to completing their seasons

Monday’s announcement of another national lockdown means no clubs below the National League South and North divisions - the sixth tier of English football - can play until mid-February at the earliest.

There will need to be some major extensions to the usual finishing times, or some creativity with points-per-game ratios or playing a certain number of fixtures, if league seasons are to be completed (with promotions and relegations) ahead of 2021/22 starting on time next August.

Last season, with two-thirds of the season gone, the Football Association controversially null and voided steps 3-6 (locally, the Southern League to Division 1 of the Wessex League). That had a knock-on effect to the Hampshire Premier League (step 7).

What are the chances of a repeat?

Here, The News looks at the state of play for our local non-league clubs.

National League South

Unlike in 2019/20, completing this season’s league games shouldn’t be a problem for Havant & Waterlooville.

Classified as ‘elite sport’ has brought its problems - the club weren’t allowed any fans into their ground when 2020/21 began (unlike clubs lower down the pyramid).

But the advantages have far outweighed the disadvantages, as they have been allowed to play through all this season’s lockdowns, along with the other clubs in the top six tiers of English football, and have received £90,000 of National Lottery funding.

The Hawks’ regular league season is due to end on May 29, the final Saturday of the month. Though they still have 30 league games left, there is plenty of time in which to play them - even if the fixture list continues to be stop-start due to Covid-related postponements for a few more weeks yet.

Southern League

No club at steps three or four of the non-league pyramid have as many league games left to play this season as Moneyfields.

Since the Southern League campaign began on September 19, Dave Carter’s men have played just four Division 1 South games out of 38.

Even if their season began on Saturday, February 27, and was extended until the last Saturday of May - bringing the Southern League into line with the National League - that would mean Moneyfields playing 34 league games in 92 days.

Put another way, that would mean 14 Saturday games and 20 matches to fit into 13 midweeks. So for seven weeks Moneys would be playing three times a week.

Imagine what Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola would say if their players had to play that many games in such a short space of time!

Professionals couldn’t do it - they wouldn’t do it - so how can you ask part-timers?

Carter told The News yesterday he would be happy to play on into July.

He is unlikely to get his wish but, hypothetically, let’s say the Southern League season was extended to Saturday, July 10. That would leave 34 games to be played on 20 Saturdays (and that’s given the league restarting at the end of February, a huge presumption in itself) and 19 midweeks.

Even if that was all possible, Moneys would still be playing twice a week for 14 weeks out of 19.

Oh, and they still have to play Fareham Town in the semi-final of the 2019/20 Portsmouth Senior Cup! The least of their priorities, I know, but it’s another game.

The situation at Southern Premier League South club Gosport Borough is only marginally better - they ‘only’ have 31 of their 38 league games left!

It is impossible to see how the Southern League campaign can be completed, even if you extend into the summer months.

Wessex League

Generally, the Wessex have looked to wrap their seasons up by late April. In the last 14 seasons, only six times has the last game been played in May - and the latest finish was May 9.

Such a timeframe is patently not possible in 2020/21.

In a season where 760 Premier games were due to take place, only 236 - 31 per cent - have actually been played.

If games restarted on February 27 and finished on May 9, that would leave 11 Saturdays in which to complete 69 per cent of the season. Fareham Town still have 27 Wessex Premier Division games left, plus at least one FA Vase tie.

Even before Monday’s announcement, the FA had given the Wessex, and other non-leagues, the option of extending until the end of May.

Extending the season to May 29 would give 14 Saturdays (presuming a February 27 restart). But that would still mean Fareham having to shoehorn in 27 games - 71 per cent of their Wessex campaign - into a 92-day period.

I’ll do the maths - that’s one game every 3.4 days, or twice a week. Wessex players are no strangers to playing twice a week, but for 11 successive weeks? And after only playing one league game between November 3 and February 26? And that’s with no postponements taken into account.

And that doesn’t include at least one Vase tie and a Portsmouth Senior Cup semi-final with Moneyfields!

The same goes for US Portsmouth in Division 1. If and when they restart, they still have 26 league games left (72 per cent of their fixtures) and at least one FA Vase tie to play in basically three months.

Realistically, you can only complete the season by extending into June or July. And will the FA sanction that?

Hampshire Premier League

The season has generally always finished in May. Since its inception in 2007/08, the final league game has been played in April on only three occasions.

In 2012/13 the final game was played on May 18 and the previous season May 16, so a mid-May finish would not be a first.

If games restarted on February 27 and finished on May 22, that would leave 13 Saturdays in which to complete 58 per cent of the season (so far 202 out of a total of 480 Senior Division games have been played).

Locks Heath have got the fewest games left (14) while Paulsgrove have the most (20).

Providing there are no weather-related postponements - or any other lockdowns - Grove would need to play seven midweek games in order to finish by May 22.

That wouldn’t be a first either - in April 2018 Grove played EIGHT midweek matches in a month en route to winning the HPL title.

In Division 1, leaders Moneyfields Reserves have 18 league games left and would be confident of completing their season (especially as they have floodlights) by mid-May.

Even with a late February, or early March restart, there is a good chance the league could be played to a conclusion.

But if the Wessex League isn’t, then how does that affect promotion and relegation between the two leagues?

Ending the Southern League and Wessex League seasons and rolling them over into 2021/22 has been suggested as a way around the problem. After all, in those four divisions no club has played more than 15 league games.

If you ended the 2020/21 season now, you could restart in August/September and be finished by February 2022. Reintroducing all the cups - the Hampshire Senior, the Russell Cotes, the Portsmouth Senior Cup - could allow a competitive season to progress to March or even April if there is the usual raft of bad weather to contend with.

But that raises various questions.

How do you fill the blank weeks in March and April this year if restrictions are lifted and non-league football can resume? Do you organise local cup competitions - for example, one featuring Gosport, Moneyfields and the local Wessex clubs (and you could throw in Chichester and Bognor Regis for good measure as the Isthmian League will surely fall in line with the Southern League, or vice versa)?If the Hampshire Premier League can be played to a conclusion, you can’t promote anyone as the 2020/21 Wessex season won’t be finishing until early next year. So what happens then? Do you promote the 2021/22 HPL champions into the 2022/23 Wessex League? Hardly fair on the 2020/21 winners, is it?

The upshot of all this - I feel genuinely sorry for those in officialdom who have to sort this mess out.

I also have a solution; not a brilliant one - name me one that is? - but a ‘fits all’ solution nonetheless.

That is for each club to play at least half their league fixtures - and draw a line under the table when that happens. Promotion and relegation to still take place. The Hampshire Premier League should be able to be completed, even with an early March restart.

My solution would mean, for example, a club being relegated from NL South having played a full season, and a club replacing them from the Southern League Premier having only played 50 per cent of their matches.

That is not ideal, but it’s better than null and void.

Anything is better than null and void.