Return to football will be fresh start for Lancaster City squad

Rhys Turner will hopefully get more opportunity next season to showcase his talents

The Dolly Blues boss is working towards an estimated mid-August date for the start of the 2021/22 NPL Premier Division season.

Having only played a handful of games before this season was suspended in November before officially being declared null and void earlier this month, Fell believes his players will be champing at the bit to get back on the grass.

He has pencilled in a mid-June return for pre-season training followed by friendlies in preparation for a possible FA Cup tie in early August before the league campaign starts.

Fell has already begun discussions with his existing squad about his plans for next season and is putting feelers out in terms of squad strengthening.

But after such a difficult 12 months, Fell believes there will be a spring in the step in every one of his players on the first day of pre-season.

“We have already been told that the FA plan to have the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup in early August so that’s a good indicator for us that our league season will start mid-August which would mean a pre-season start date of mid June. So based on those timescales I have got just under three months to get everything in place ready for the start of the new season.

“I said before that I didn’t want to start too early but the planning is under way.

“I think it will just be good to get the lads back in and together again.

“If you think we did not see an awful lot of the new signings we made last summer.

“People like Andy Teague and Rhys Turner. They will be keen to show what they can do.

“It’s going to be a fresh start for everybody.”

Despite the very best laid plans, Fell admits that the future remains uncertain due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government have issued a roadmap out of the current lockdown restrictions but there are no guarantees that they will not return, especially if there is a spike in new virus infections.

“Everything is still up in the air,” said Fell. “ We will need to see the effects of this roadmap out of restrictions and take it from there.”

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