We now know that the 2020/21 season is planned to start on Saturday 3rd October provided there is no 2nd wave of Covid 19, but what about those pre-season friendlies?

They will of course happen, indeed they are an absolute priority for all managers including our own Steve McKimm as part of the preparation for the campaign, but in order for them to be played an enormous amount of work has to be undertaken in a relatively short space of time to comply with the protocols in order to try to keep all safe from Covid 19.

Those protocols have now been published by The National League working closely with the FA, The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and The Safety at Sports Grounds Authority, and were received on 4th August.

The club is now working hard to comply with the proverbial mountain of electronic paper work received and out of that to produce our own Risk Assessments as they apply to the Halcyon Wealth Longmead Stadium and any other location that may be used for training. All clubs are having to go through the same process and of course to allow any match to to go ahead both clubs involved have to met the same criteria.

We shall of course publish the dates of our pre-season friendlies as soon as they are confirmed although they can still be subject to short notice cancellation or alteration.  Please remember, they will all have to be behind closed doors as mandated by Government regulations.