‘We’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the fans’ – officials of Hawks’ league rivals on why they’re staying away until supporters return

Those are the thoughts of Sir Mike Penning, the MP for Hemel Hempstead and club president of Hawks’ National League South rivals Hemel Hempstead Town.

Penning and Tudors vice-chairman Kerry Underwood have said they will not attend another game until supporters are allowed back.

At present, no fans are allowed into Hemel’s matches at Vauxhall Road due to the sixth tier of English football being in the ‘elite’ category.

Before the current lockdown fans had been allowed to attend matches at Step 3 and below, albeit with restricted capacities and other restrictions in place.

The National League and North and South clubs are currently being propped up by National Lottery funding - to the tune of at least £30,000 a month - while the turnstiles remain closed.

But Conservative MP Penning, who voted against the current lockdown in parliament, believes the situation must change.

‘It wasn’t just about Hemel, it was about non-League football, particularly the Vanarama North and South,’” he said.

‘We felt that if we went as officials of the club and the fans weren’t allowed then that was unfair.

‘The managers, the coaches and the physios need to be there and the chairman needs to be there, but we don’t need to be there and we want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the fans and that’s why we made that decision.

‘We have to be conscious that there is a difficult situation with the virus but we made this decision before the current lockdown.

‘The Premier League and professional football clubs are in a different situation to clubs like ours.

‘We rely enormously on the turnstiles and these clubs are going to go to the wall simply because we are banning their fans from going.’

One of the games Penning and Underwood will miss is their club’s trip to Westleigh Park for a NL South game on Wednesday, December 2.