Rug pulled from beneath Burnham
Blues were getting things right on and off the pitch
Burnham player manager Ash James says it feels like the rug has been pulled from beneath them, just when it seemed they were getting things right both on and off the field.
The Blues were starting to find their feet under their new player coach and a series of encouraging results has seen them climb the league table.
James knew in the back of his mind that there was a chance the season could be halted by coronavirus, but, when the announcement was made on Saturday evening, he still found it difficult to take. The postponement of Saturday’s home game with Fairford Town meant they also couldn’t sign off with a victory and simply added insult to injury.
“The chairman and I had a chat about this (the suspension) and we were both gutted about it,” said James. “On and off the pitch we had got things together and we knew what we were doing.
“Saturday’s game was called off quite late. We all really wanted to have it on. The referee did his best, but he had to call it off really. After that both teams trained at the ground and then there was a feeling of ‘so that’s it then’.
“Who knows what’s going to happen next. It was a weird feeling afterwards because we just want to continue.”
James is confident the players will keep themselves in shape during this period without training and matches, and they were due to come together as a club one more time this week to watch the youth team play and use up some of the food and drnk at the club.
“We’ll keep in touch with the players,” he said. “We’re going to do some training and fitness ses
sions over Zoom to keep us all ticking over. We’re also going to go down and support the youth team on Tuesday and have some food and drinks afterwards. We’ve got to get rid of some drinks at the club as well.
“We won’t see each other for a month or so after that, so it’s just a chance for us to get together and then move forward. A month won’t be so bad. If the players do their own bits and pieces and we have the Zoom sessions. But if it goes on longer than a month it becomes a bit draining. How long before it starts to influence the players’ mental health. Everyone is in a different line of work as well so who knows how it will affect everyone associated with the club.
“We got the go ahead but it was a very rushed pre-season, but to be in the position we were in, we were very happy. We spoke at the start of the season about this because we had a feeling it might happen. But when you start playing you stop thinking about that. Now that it’s come it’s affected us more than we thought it would.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. Are we going to have any more games this side of Christmas? We can only be hopeful. It’s out of our hands at the end of the day. We can only wait on the word of the MPs and go from there.”
James is only a few weeks into his first stint in management and couldn't really have asked for a stranger start to life in the dugout. But he feels the players are starting to get to grips with how he wants them to play and he said the side looked like it had real purpose in their past couple of games. Just when they were building a head of steam it feels like they’ve been stopped in their tracks, he added.
“I’m really gutted about it,” he said. “We were just starting to get somewhere; we were starting to find the right balance in the things we were doing, and we looked like we had a purpose. They were getting to grips with how I want the side to play. It was all coming together and now it’s come to a halt.
“I’m gutted about that but it’s out of our hands. The only saving grace is that every other club is in the same position.”