From the Terraces: Still too early to say where coronavirus suspension leaves Harrogate Town

Writing this column last week was a difficult balancing act.

Football was still playing on, but I could see the coronavirus outbreak approaching fast down the tracks, and my overwhelming feeling was that the football season, indeed normal life itself, was living on borrowed time.

My previous column now seems hopelessly out of date, so quick has been the pace of change over the last seven days, but what I didn’t predict was just how quickly things would escalate.

With a government seemingly caught in the headlights with regards to the scale of the problem and the need to act fast, we saw the ludicrous situation of 3,000 Athletico Madrid fans being allowed to travel to Anfield, and drink in the bars, despite the Spanish capital being in effective lockdown and football there being played behind closed doors.

Thankfully the FA, Premier League and EFL took the sensible decision to cancel all matches soon after, the day after the government had effectively said “carry on as normal”.

We were then left with the unedifying spectacle of the National League dragging its heels and allowing matches to continue last weekend.

Quite how they felt it was acceptable to say that Notts County could host Eastleigh and Harrogate Town’s first team travel to Solihull, when even the Harrogate Ladies’ fixtures were cancelled, is anyone’s guess.

As it turned out, Town sensibly pulled out of the Solihull match on the Friday night, announcing that four members of staff, two players among them, were having to self-isolate after feeling unwell.

Many of the planned fifth tier fixtures the following day followed suit, although around half were unnecessarily played, until it became blindingly obvious, even to the National League authorities, that the situation was untenable.

I’d already made the decision that, should the FA Trophy match against Notts County actually go ahead, I wasn’t going to attend anyway.

We absolutely have to break the lines of transmission of this virus.

So, even though we currently find ourselves in the situation where first team fixtures have been suspended until April 4, I think we can almost certainly predict that the football season is finished past that.

The questions about what happens next, and where we go from here, are not questions that can be answered with any clarity yet.

So where does this leave Harrogate Town? The short answer is that no one knows.

Although what we can say with some certainty is that it’s undoubtedly been a tremendous season for the club, cruelly cut short just as we were eyeing the possibility of promotion and at least one historic trip to Wembley.

While heading to the shops yesterday, I bumped into my old boss on Oatlands Corner and stated that, having lived and breathed Harrogate Town with my daughter through this column all season, as if it was the most important thing in the world, it all now seemed trivial in comparison.

I said it but, in hindsight, I don’t wholly believe it to be the case.

Although football does indeed pale into insignificance in times like these, it’s precisely things like the adventures we’ve all been through this season that keep us going in normal times, and

I’m going to miss watching Town in the near future.

We all need to keep these memories close in the weeks ahead, safe in the knowledge that once we do get through this challenging period, normality will return.

To that effect, the news coming out of Town this week of the signing of Guiseley’s Aaron Martin is heartening, and shows more signs of the club seeking to retain the bulk of its current squad while strengthening where it needs to.

In the meantime, stay safe and look after your loved ones.