We have to avoid the void, claims Barrow boss

IMPASSIONED Barrow manager Ian Evatt says the National League season cannot be allowed to be voided, warning that the league leaders would struggle to recover from the gut-punch of being denied promotion.

The football landscape has been decimated by the escalating coronavirus crisis, with the game halted across the land in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The Premier League and EFL intend to finish their seasons, but the Football Association has been going through consultation and scenarioplanning with stakeholders across all levels of English football.

It is understood the fifth and sixth tiers of the pyramid which includes Emley, Shelley and Golcar United in the North West Counties Division One North - have already ended their season, although no decision has yet been made over relegation and promotion from those leagues.

It has been reported that the majority of National League clubs have begrudgingly agreed that voiding the campaign is the most realistic way forward - a plan that infuriates Barrow manager Evatt, whose tabletopping side are on the brink of promotion to the EFL.

Asked how the club would recover from such a blow, he said: “I don’t think it would recover. That’s being frank.

“I don’t see how you can, in the interest of fairness, void the season when some teams in our league have only got seven games to play.

“I get people are going to say ‘well, you’re top of the league, it’s easy to say’, but I genuinely believe my view would be the same regardless - you are where you are at the moment and you are where you deserve to be.

“Now, if this was halfway through the season or under, you can completely understand voiding a season. But we’re talking about, from some clubs’ perspective, seven games.

“Seven games away from the completing the season. You cannot – you cannot – null and void it. And if that was the case, obviously my board of directors, the chairman would probably look at their investment in the football club.”