Chichester and Bognor know there are no guarantees on Isthmian restart

Bognor have been in FA Trophy action - but the Isthmian League remains on hold / Picture: Lyn Phillips

New talks are likely for league bosses and clubs following the government’s latest review of Covid lockdown tiers. But am immediate restart seems highly unlikely – and the best hope seems to be that things could be clearer by early or mid-January, allowing the league fixture programme to begin again then.

Bognor manager Jack Pearce, who is involved at FA level in some of the committees working to get football operating something like normally and get league seasons finished, said it was a very difficult and unpredictable situation.

Pearce was speaking after seeing Bognor bow out of the FA Trophy with a 2-1 defeat at division-lower Maldon and Tiptree, a 93rd-minute winner ending Bognor’s hopes of anything like a repeat of their 2016 run to the semi-finals.

The defeat leaves Bongor not knowing when their next game will be – though a couple of festive friendlies between the Rocks and Chichester City are being lined up.

Pearce said: “It’s impossible to predict when the league will restart.

“If the leagues and clubs felt last week they couldn’t restart, then the decision to put London, Essex and part of Hertfordshire into tier three will certainly not have helped.

“I’m holding out for a January restart, though. That’s what we have to hope will be possible.”

If league games can begin again in January, officials expect to get the full season finished. They have already said they can play to the end of May and into June – though even that will call for quite a hectic schedule of games.

In the Isthmian premier teams have played between five and ten games – with each club needing to get through 42 in total.

In the south east division, sides have played between five and nine – but they have only a 36-game programme to complete.

The big worry is that rising Covid rates in many areas of the country, plus a relaxing of rules over five days of Christmas, will mean new restrictions are introduced in January. And if the league cannot restart then, it is hard to see how it can possibly get finished properly.