Lancaster City manager Mark Fell calls for steer on start of new season

However, the Dolly Blues boss accepts that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic – which caused the 2019-20 season to be cancelled – may cause further disruption.

But Fell is trying to adopt a business-as-usual approach as he plans his pre-season preparations and goes about strengthening his squad.

Currently the players are expected to report back for pre-season training by the end of June but all that could change depending on the coronavirus crisis.

The City manager admits he would like the league to give some sort of steer as to whether they believe the season will start as normal.

“We are sort of treating things as normal until told otherwise,” Fell said.

“My plan is that we come back in for pre-season training by June 27, with a view for the start of the season on August 15, but that is all flexible.

“I am getting to a point now where we need some sort of guidance as to whether it is even feasible that we are going to start.

“The reason for that is I am working backwards from our pre-season start date to give the lads programmes and plans that they need to do in order to get them as fit as we can before we see them.

“But we don’t want to start that process until there is an end game.

“If it looks like it’s going to be a September start then we will resist that process.

“Everything can be put back but we could do with having some sort of steer even that the league has some sort of aspiration to get started on time or whether it thinks things will be delayed.

“But I have planned a whole pre-season programme and we have been speaking to players as you do. If we are starting pre-season training in five weeks then I need a clear indication that we are planning towards an August start.”