CLUB COMFIRM BOTH CHRISTMAS GAMES WILL BE OFF FOLLOWING LATEST COVID 19 DEVELOPMENTS!

It has been a weekend of fast moving developments following latest announcements from the government, The Northern Premier League League and various clubs within the league.

Here in a nutshell for the benefit of supporters sums up the developments of the last couple of days

It was announced in midweek that clubs would be able to start playing again with 200 spectators in although Clubhouses must remain closed.

Loughborough and Carlton agreed to play although it was the only game on the fixture list on Saturday morning due to other clubs not wishing to play and bad weather.

Loughborough’s excellent surface then failed a pitch inspection, so the game was off.

In the meantime, Mosley, Glossop North End and Staybridge Celtic put out strong statements against resuming fixtures.

In Division One South East, Belper Town and Sutton Coldfield put out strongly worded statements stating they would not be playing fixtures in the current situation.

It then also became apparent that also in Division one South East, Leek Town, Newcastle Town, Chasetown and Kidsgrove had been informed their supporters were banned from attending games, making playing for them completely untenable.

At 4pm on Saturday, the government announced that a new strain of Covid 19 was transmitting between people rapidly and placed a significant number of people in a new draconian tier 4 category.

Nottinghamshire remains in tier three and clubs are currently allowed 200 spectators. but not allowed to sell food or drink or admit any away fans into the stadium and the Clubhouse would obviously have to be completely closed.

Talks have been taking  place with Gedling Borough Council to see if alternative parts of the ground could be used for sales with an outside licensee operating It, but although the Council were generally supportive of the club’s position, officers concluded this was not possible.

Folowing the back lash from a number of clubs not prepared to play without away Supporters and without food and drink available, The Northern Premier League have given clubs the option of playing over the Festive season or not.

Kidsgrove have today contacted the club to state that the New Years Day fixture away would be off and Carlton have agreed with Ilkeston Town to stage the scheduled Boxing Day clash at Stoke Lane later in the season when hopefully a significant rollout of the vaccine, will allow away Supporters to attend and Matchday Food and drink facilities to reopen.