WENDRON United manager Jack Greenwood is calling on everyone to support their local clubs when sport is eventually allowed to resume.

All football was abruptly suspended by the Football Association on March 16 to minimise the spread of the coronavirus, with all clubs and pubs being told to close by the Government on March 20 as social distancing rules come into force.

A long and wet winter saw several matches postponed at the start of the year, leaving many clubs with a backlog of home matches in March and April.

Wendron still had seven home games to play before the suspension was imposed, meaning seven vital cash injections have yet to be collected by the club.

This vital source of income will be lost if the FA follows the Rugby Football Union’s lead and cancels all remaining fixtures, something Greenwood feels cannot be allowed to happen.

He said: “I know there’s things we can do from the Government to help support us but I would imagine businesses and individual people are going to be looked after before sporting clubs are, but I think it’s just not fair if Wendron were now to be told the season’s over, it’s just unfair.

“I don’t know what we take each game but it costs us £2,500 a week to open. If we have a couple of weeks at the end of the season where we’ve got two or three games at home on Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, that is going to be huge for the club.

“We can’t just kick the can further down the road until the first home game in August because that’s four or five months away. We desperately need games to be back on and games to be played.

“Everyone obviously understands what’s going on and that there’s just going to be a void for the moment and you can prepare for that, but it’s unfair for those teams competing at the top, it’s unfair for those teams fighting relegation at the bottom, it’s unfair for us who are in our first season in that league and want to finish as high as possible.

“We might not be playing for anything, but we are playing for pride and every time we play it brings in income. There’s just so many knock-on effects as to what happens if you don’t have matches.”

Greenwood is calling on his club and its supporters, as well as those connected to visiting teams, to come together and support the club when football returns, and has vowed to return the favour for other teams at away games.

He said: “We’ve just got to make sure everyone supports their own club individually and those that come and watch do just stay behind in the bar and buy a pint and just do everything they can to keep sports clubs going.

“I’ll be saying to my players when we go to away games that we need to spend half an hour in the bar at least and put some money behind their bar. Everyone’s got a responsibility to do a little bit and they’ll get a lot back in the long run."