Paulton Rovers Chairman Reflects on the Season that Never Was

Paulton Rovers football chairman Dave Bissex declared 'Well what a year where do I start. A great pity we didn’t complete the season, I sincerely believe the club would have made the play-offs and we were reaching peak form and could’ve moved on, but this coronavirus halted all that, and totally changed not only football, but the whole of our lives'.

Dave said ' John Rendell our manager, with coaches Paul Tovey and Kye Mountford had actually built up a great bunch of lads and some of the football we were playing particularly latterly was most enjoyable. It was great to see Ben Bament finish the reduced season as leading goalscorer in our division, it was suggested all records should be expunged, but I expressed my own views with a club hat on giving particular thoughts to Ben, that was quite an achievement and he may never achieve that ‘goal’ again and it’s something that he can tell his grandchildren many years to come.

Although I am sure we would all like to see a repeat of that when we eventually start playing football again. When will that be one says, who knows, various options have been discussed and considered by the FA and that includes the possibility of not even starting until January of next year!

The prospects over the last couple of weeks have looked positive but it is very disappointing to see that the west country has now one of the highest infection rates in the country, and if the public doesn’t take serious notice there’s not much doubt we’re going to end up going back into lockdown again in the near future.'

Another thing absolutely imperative for all clubs at step three and below is that their club and bar facilities are fully functional again. 

For many clubs, this is their only source of revenue and they won’t be able to field a team of players or incur the cost of travelling and other expenses without their bar revenue. This I know is also something the FA are taking into consideration when restarting non league football, it’s being suggested that clubs and pubs may open in July, how successful that will be with the social distancing remains to be seen.

We have been taking advantage of the club being empty and various improvements and redecoration works have been carried out over the past few months being very careful to maintain social distancing, thanks to all those volunteers who gave up their time to assist with this.

Likewise the lads have done us proud and got the pitch in great nick again by taking advantage of the shortened season to give more time for grass growth.

Rest assured we are keeping a watchful eye on things and carefully monitoring what the government and the FA are saying, and we will be ready to resume with a strong squad once again when ever this happens.

We will give you an update again when we have more information to pass on in the meantime on behalf of Paulton Rovers and myself,  stay safe and look after yourselves.'