Wilkin insists Brackley will continue to prepare for matches

Brackley Town's scheduled midweek game with Southport was called off and they are due to head to Curzon Ashton at the weekend
Brackley Town manager Kevin WilkinBrackley Town manager Kevin Wilkin
Brackley Town manager Kevin Wilkin

Kevin Wilkin insists Brackley Town will continue to prepare for matches while the National League North season hangs in the balance.

The Saints were part of the only game to take place in the division last weekend as they fought back from a goal down to beat FA Cup heroes Chorley 2-1 at St James Park.

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A number of clubs have confirmed they won’t be playing matches while the voting process, which was started due to the row over a lack of grants for clubs, to decide whether the season should continue or be declared null and void continues.

Brackley haven’t publicly confirmed whether they have voted yet or, if they have, which option they have voted for.

And so, for the time being, manager Wilkin is doing all he can to keep his players ready for action.

They had been due to host Southport tonight (Tuesday) and are scheduled to travel to Curzon Ashton on Saturday.

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Today’s game fell foul of a frozen pitch but Wilkin is urging clubs who don’t want to play for the time being to be more “up front” to ensure others aren’t left in limbo.

“I just hope clubs deal with things a bit better than Southport did,” the Brackley boss said.

“They clearly have a stance on the situation but up until this morning we still expected them to be coming to play us but that was after an interview with their manager (Liam Watson) that everyone had seen where he said they wouldn’t be.

“I don’t think we got told officially one way or another and we rely heavily on volunteers who want to know what’s going on as well as the players and staff.

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“The weather is what it is, we can’t control that. We can control people making decisions and being up front about whether they are prepared to play or not.

“We have got to prepare for Saturday or whatever the next game is unless we are told differently.

“If clubs have a stance, just be up front and open about it. It’s not fair to leave people in limbo.”

Wilkin, meanwhile, was delighted with his team’s effort to keep their unbeaten run going last weekend.

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It was the first game back after the division had been suspended for two weeks and goals from James Armson and Wes York completed the comeback after Chorley had taken a first-half lead and Danny Lewis had saved a penalty to keep the score at 1-0 at the time.

“It was a bit quirky with it being the only game in the division,” Wilkin added.

“We showed good resilience to come from behind to win the game.

“We started well and we allowed them to have a period in the middle of the first half when they scored and they could have moved the game away from us with the penalty they had.

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“Fortunately, Danny saved it and we finished the half well and started the second half well and we got ourselves into a good position.

“We probably should have scored again but we did enough to merit the three points.

“It was a strong performance on the back of being laid off for a while and it keeps us in and around where we want to be.”