DAVID McGurk admits he is frustrated at having his second season in charge of Hyde United being declared null and void.
But he revealed plans are already in place to make sure they are good to go for the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
After just six matches were played, there is no chance of the Northern Premier League season finishing after the Football Association ruled all Steps 3-6 leagues must cease following Government rulings.
There is a subtle difference to last term in that the results are not completely wiped from the record books.
But while conceding the league has taken the right decision, McGurk could not contain his frustration.
He said: “I’m massively frustrated as it’s two years of management in what could be a short career that are completely lost.
“We’re still unbeaten, we still haven’t won a game either!
“When you start out playing, you think it’s going to go on forever but it’s only 15 years. If someone took two years away from that, it’s a big chunk of it.
“And your development as a coach is stunted as you can’t go out and watch games, you can’t get knowledge on players who are coming through as we couldn’t go and watch them.
“I may finish a full season in 2022. The season’s done but they’ve purposely not made it null and void just with the idea that they may have to go back to the results that have happened this year.
“Once the leagues above us made their decision, it made our league’s and the FA’s a lot easier.
“It was the only decision that could be made really. There was a little glimmer of hope that we could’ve played but as the weeks went on, there was only going to be one outcome.”
Now plans are being made for next season. McGurk will speak with club bosses about his budget soon, but a training schedule has already been drawn up.
He added: “Things will really start moving probably at the beginning of May in terms of speaking to players and trying to finalise what your squad is going to look like in June when you go into pre-season.
“We’re going to wait until then before we start filtering the lads back in ahead of a proper pre-season from July 1.
“They’re hoping to start the season on August 7 or 14. We normally work back seven weeks from there but we’re probably going to go 10 or 11 weeks and ease them in as they’ve had so long off.”
One group McGurk really feels for through two seasons of chaos is the players, especially this time as the only options for action are either the National League – two levels above – or dropping down to step seven.
He also told some players are moving to Wales which restarts on Saturday, March 27 at both Cymru Premier and Cymru North level.
As well as on a work level, the Covid-19 pandemic has hit McGurk on a personal level. Over Christmas he contracted coronavirus and admits it was a worrying time.
He told The Correspondent: “I was in a bad way for three or four days, just laid up.
“My kids, wife and both sets of parents were okay, though. I was close to ringing to go into hospital.
“It completely wiped me out over Christmas and took me a bit longer than I thought it would to get over it.”