The Season That Never Was

The season started on a well when Bishops Stortford Swifts won the Senior Challenge Cup winning 1 – 0 at Buckhurst Hill

By the second week of March over 200 matches had been postponed by the weather but worse was still to come.

In early February the Coronavirus struck our shores and on 17 March 2020 The F.A. and E.C.F.A. advised that all football was suspended until at least 03 April 2020.

This was superseded on 23 March 2020 when we were advised that all football, including training, was suspended until the end of April.

At this point there over 250 matches still to be played and it was decided by the league that our cup competitions would be suspended.

The Management Committee also advised that given the fact that clubs were not receiving any income at that time, it had been agreed that the League would not be asking their clubs to pay any annual subscription charges for season 2020-2021.

The final blow came on 25 March 2020 when the FA announced that all football in Leagues from Step 3 to Step 7 was suspended and that the 2019/20 season was to be ended with immediate effect and all results were to be expunged. This meant that there was to be no promotion or relegation of Clubs.

Whilst this decision was greeted with disbelief and opposition in some quarters, given that at that point over 100 people were dying of Coronavirus per day, it was a decision that was not wholly unexpected.

At the A.G.M. on 11 June 2020 it was agreed that the season would be declared void and whilst individual player league stats would remain available on Full Time, league tables would be deleted.

On 13 August 2020 we were told that the 2019/2020 Essex County Cups would also be concluded.

This meant that Leigh Town and Ongar Town would not play their Essex Premier Cup Semi-Final or the final against Buckhurst Hill, and the Essex Junior Cup Final between Collier Row and Hutton Reserves would not be played

On this sad note the 2019-2020 season became The Season That Never Was.