JOHN Coleman feels the Football League season will reach a natural conclusion rather than being settled on a points per game basis like last season’s abandoned campaign.
But the Accrington Stanley boss fears this will only be a realistic possibility if the season is extended until the end of May, rather than the original finale of May 8.
The Reds were already playing catch-up after having to shut down for two weeks and miss four games because of a Covid outbreak within the camp in October-November, while the Boxing Day game at Doncaster Rovers and Tuesday’s visit of Sunderland were both postponed due to positive tests in the opposition camp.
And that situation has been worsened after today’s clash at home to Portsmouth was postponed after failing a pitch inspection yesterday.
Stanley are at least two games behind all bar two teams in the rest of League One, and are facing a run of a game every four days as things stand. That fixture pile-up could get worse with the winter weather expected to have an impact too.
With mass testing throughout the EFL in the coming days Coleman anticipates further postponements and an increase in positive Covid tests, which could result in a ‘circuit break’ for football.
“In hindsight that circuit break should have happened two weeks ago because then we’d have been in the same boat as everybody else,” said Coleman, whose side last played on December 19, earning a goalless draw at home to Blackpool.
“I don’t know what the answers are because you don’t know what’s around the corner.
“And I think there’s going to be a lot of testing next week in the EFL. I’d be very very surprised if there isn’t triple figures of positives, bearing in mind that there was 40 in the Premier League and they’ve only got 20 clubs compared to 72.
“I think we’re going to be looking in the hundreds. And then the EFL have a decision to make. Do they plod along and have multiple games suspended or postponed or do they have a break? But then they’ve got to fit that in somewhere.
“The only logical thing for me is to extend it (the season) to the end of May.”
Asked if he could see the season being completed, he added: “I can, but only if it goes to the end of May.”
But Coleman said the problems that football is facing pale into insignificance compared with the widespread hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The one thing people are missing the point of a lot, as you get het up in your own life and obviously football is our livelihood, but people are dying of this disease.
“It’s getting worse rather than getting better at the moment and the forefront of everyone’s mind should be the families of people who are dying, the people who are on the front line – the doctors, nurses and numerous carers - who are having to battle this disease.
“Football should come way down the list when you think about the priorities. It is my life and I am obsessed with football but sometimes you need a reality check.”
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