HELSTON Athletic manager Steve Massey described the decision to null and void the South West Peninsula League season as ‘the worst-case scenario’ for his club.

Following a series of meetings between the Football Association and key figures of non-league football this week, the FA declared on Thursday that all results from the 2019/20 season in steps 3 to 6 of the National League System have been expunged.

The decision was made after all football was suspended on March 16 following the coronavirus outbreak.

The decision to null and void the season denies Helston a maiden SWPL Premier title, with the Blues enjoying an unbroken 24-game winning run at the time of the suspension.

“It was a worst-case scenario for ourselves really, and when I say ourselves I don’t just mean me personally, but its for the players,” Massey said. “When they heard the announcement yesterday, within an hour of that the group chat was alive with people saying, ‘we’re gutted, I’m so disappointed’.

“They’ve worked very hard, they’ve travelled all those hours, and the boys in Devon have left their family behind for most of Saturday and they’ve done that for seven, eight months.

READ MORE: South West Peninsula League season declared null and void

“The games we’ve gone and played in and the tears and the joy, and it’s just amounted to absolutely nothing. That’s the biggest smack – it’s just amounted to nothing, it’s gone.

“But as people are saying, and quite rightly, that’s gone and we just look towards next season now, whenever that might start.”

While the decision has been made to null and void all leagues within Steps 3 to 7 of the National League System, the National League at Steps 1 and 2, as well as the Premier League and English Football League, have yet to make a decision on how their leagues will be resolved.

With the Premier League having indicated a desire to see its fixtures completed, Massey believed the difference in stances suggests a ‘them against us’ attitude among the various levels of football.

“Try telling Liverpool the season’s null and void!” he said. “Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion, try telling them. That’s not the answer, there is a way.

“I keep saying this word we’ve heard so often over the past few weeks – unprecedented. Well, do unprecedented things, rip the rulebook up then because there’s nothing ever like it before. It’s never been done.

“I would have liked to have seen this season finished whenever that was possible, and I think that was the fairest route. If then it meant we’ve only got about four months left before we start the 2021/22 season, then so be it. Maybe we play a round of charity matches or cup matches or whatever, but finish the season was my thought as the fairest way out of it.

“Whatever happens at the very top of football should be seen to be happening right the way down to the bottom of the pyramid, and I just think it smacks of the haves and have-nots.”