‘We’re all ready to rock and roll!’
Mid Solent League determined to restart at Easter
Secretary Steve Cox will do everything within his powers to ensure Mid Solent League clubs are in a position to return to action this Easter weekend.
And he remains optimistic of finding a way to get both adult and youth section seasons fully completed by the end of June.
The Mid Solent League can return from March 29 with grassroots football given the green light to resume as part of the Government's roadmap to easing coronavirus restrictions.
That means the first Saturday available for the more than 3,000 players associated with the league to get back out on pitches across the area is April 3, the day after Good Friday.
Cox stated that as long as he gets FA clearance and clubs agree, that's the date he's pushing to get the Mid Solent League back up and running.
The 13 adult section clubs will be consulted and informed of what scenarios are available in order to complete the 2020/21 season before a decision is made.
Cox said: ‘I’ve never dulled my enthusiasm for the opportunity to get this season finished, I’ve never given up on it.
‘I’ll certainly be instructing the youth sides that’s the date we’ll start (first weekend in April).
‘The men are chomping at the bit, they just want to play anyway, so they’ll want to get as many games as they can in.
'I will put everything in place, I’ll make sure we’re ready to rock and roll, it gives us four or five weeks to get everything ready and prepared for it.
'We’re going to have a chat with the adult section clubs and we’re going to offer them all the scenarios.
‘We know how many games they’ve played if they want to complete the season by playing each other twice, which we started out to do; we started the season saying we’d do the first round of fixtures and play each other once by Christmas.
‘It didn’t quite come off but we got close to it.'
The biggest fear for Cox is managing to fit all adult section matches in before the extended end of June date for campaigns to be completed.
If the adult section is to recommence on April 3, it would provide clubs with 13 Saturdays until the end of June to complete all of their 24 league fixtures.
Yet, both Portchester Rovers and Wymering have 16 games left while Horndean United - who have played the most games in the division - have 13 fixtures to complete.
But with midweek dates available after clocks go forward, it should be possible.
Cox will encourage clubs to play double headers and in midweek if at all possible.
Meanwhile, youth section matches of which there are age group divisions from under-7 through to under-19 who play games on a Saturday morning - could be 'restructured' in order for seasons to be concluded.
Cox said: 'There’s about three month’s worth of football (left to play in the adult section).
‘It’s going to be tight.
'We’re going to give them (clubs) the option of double headers, midweek games if you can get them on an all-weather surface instead of training because I know some of these clubs are associated with youth clubs as well.
'In the adult section they will hopefully finish their season.
‘From the youth point of view, we’re reviewing that at the moment. If we can get going in the first weekend of April we’re quite confident by looking at different age groups - we deliberately set out this season to have extra divisions and smaller groups - and the majority of them should be completed.
‘If we structure the fixtures to start back to play what I call the contentious games I don’t mean that in a nasty way - but to play the games that are relative to final positions, first or second and that type of stuff.
‘We’re going to play those, going to revamp our fixtures, play those early doors and if we do get any setbacks then we can start looking at averaging points and things like that.
‘But we’re confident that we’ll get that finished before the end of June without a shadow of a doubt. I can confidently say we will endeavour to get our league seasons complete.'
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I can confidently say we will endeavour to get our league seasons complete
SteveCox
A Hampshire Premier League club have changed their name, introduced a reserve team for next season, and have stepped up the search for a permanent base in Portsmouth.
Harvest Home - named after the pub on Copnor Road on Portsea Island - stepped up into county football last summer after winning the Mid-Solent League title.
Due to lockdown, they have only played eight Division 1 games, winning five of them.
The club have now dropped the ‘Home’ part of their name while, slightly ironically, looking for a new home pitch at the same time.
Officials felt the name ‘Harvest Home’ carried negative connotations of being labelled a ‘pub’ team.
‘I get where they are coming from,’ said boss Steve Harris.
‘We’ve had it a couple of times this season from teams we’re playing - ‘oh, you’re just a pub team’. It would be nice to get away from that.
‘I’m a Spurs fan and I said we should be called Harvest Hotspurs to carry on the double H, but the committee didn’t go for that!’
Harris admits Harvest have ‘big plans’ and the introduction of a reserve team - that will apply to play in the MidSolent League in 2021/22 - is just one of them.
At present, the club is just the first team and the boss remarks: ‘We need a reserve team, we need youth teams, but you don’t want to run before you can walk.
‘Part of the club’s vision is also getting the team back playing in Pompey.
‘Baffins and Moneyfields have got what we’d love to have - their own grounds.
‘I’m not saying we’ll end up like them, but we need to start somewhere.’
Harvest have so far played their HPL home games at the Hampshire FA-run Front Lawn 3G pitch in Havant.
‘The facilities there are second to none, but it doesn’t feel like home,’ said Harris.
‘There’s nowhere that says ‘Harvest’ anywhere.
‘We want to find somewhere that feels like home.’
During their Mid-Solent League days, Harvest played at a variety of venues in and around Portsea Island.
‘We bounced around a bit,’ said Harris. ‘We played at King George V, but I hated playing there, I didn’t think the pitches were of a good standard.
‘We played at Rugby Camp, which was good, and we played at Langstone Harbour and on the 3G at Furze Lane.’
Due to lockdowns, Harris has only had two games in charge since replacing Ray Ogilvie in the autumn.
The team have 20 Division 1 games left of 2020/21 and, to play them all, would need to play twice a week from midApril until mid-June.
Harris is hopeful of a return to competitive action in April, even if Harvest’s league campaign is null and voided.
‘We voted to play each other team once.’ Harris revealed. ‘I’m baffled as to why anyone would vote for null and void.
‘We’re all football clubs, surely everyone would want to play? I just want to get out of my house!
‘Even if we are null and void, we’re going to contact all the teams we haven’t played yet and see if they want a friendly.’
'We’re 100 per cent hungry to play games.’
Harvest’s reserve team, meanwhile, will be run by three former players with Paulo Chiviarni the main man assisted by Josh England and Billy Hall who are both planning to carry on playing.