Following the announcement from the FA that all Leagues on the pyramid from Step three to seven would end immediately, yet they wanted to finish the FA Cup, FA Trophy and FA Vase has left many in the Non-League game confused… none more so than Corinthian boss Michael Golding.

The statement read, “… that 2019-20 season will now be brought to an end, and all results will be expunged. This will mean no promotion or relegation of clubs between NLS steps three to six…”

It went on, “…with the 2019-20 Emirates FA Cup, Women’s FA Cup, Buildbase FA Trophy and Buildbase FA Vase all at advanced stages, we are reviewing all options as we seek to complete these competitions whenever it is safe and appropriate to do so. Clubs involved are close to reaching a major final and for those clubs and supporters we will do all we can to keep the Wembley dream alive.”

So is his season over or not – a question that we put to the frustrated Corinthian boss. “It’s obviously disappointing that the season has come to an end the way it has. I think it’s obviously right that football is stopped at the moment as there’s a lot of more pressing issues other than football to worry about as everyone’s efforts need to be going into dealing with the pandemic.”

“But from a selfish point of view – if footballs the only thing that you have to worry about – then it is disappointing that it’s been decided so quickly that this is the outcome!”

A clearly angry Corinthian boss went on, “A quick decision doesn’t surprise me – I think that it’s the easier decision for the FA to give this decision – it affects less teams at the top of tables and the bottom of tables; it rewards mediocrity as they have done over a number of years.”

“It is a difficult one – I don’t think that they can let it drag on – you’re always going to upset some people; you’re never going to get it right if you’re the FA!”

“I think now the FA have got to carry on down from the professional game – I think that they will now open themselves up if they don’t and allow the Premier League to be settled whether it’s playing games or points per game!”

“I think they’ll open themselves to a lot of criticism and a lot of unhappy people in the Non-League game – it doesn’t overly surprise me that they’ve settled it this quickly.”

“I think that there’s a disregard and a bit of a misunderstanding from the FA and they have a very tough job. But Non-League football means a lot to a lot of people and I don’t think that the FA quite understand.”

“Everyone’s a bit all over the place,” Golding admitted when asked about the spirit within his squad.

“The boys are gutted – we went incredibly close last year and this year through no fault of our own we’ve had the season stopped where we’re the form side in the League – top on points per game and we would have gone top if we’d have won our game in hand.”

“It’s really tough that way as in respect of the League and then we’ve still (as a result of this announcement) got the carrot of a trip to Wembley – it’s a bit of the unknown no one really knows what to say or do at the moment!”

“Obviously, we’re happy that we’ve still got this outside chance of getting to Wembley and we’ll certainly cling to that but how realistic is it?”

“But how realistic is it as all football at Step Five has been stopped yet the FA still want to play the Vase games… how do we get the players to prepare for that properly?”

“We’ve got no contact with the players at the moment so it’s very difficult – the boys are old enough and mature enough to look after themselves and they’re all doing their own bits to keep themselves ticking over as best they can.”

“We’ll just keep going on the advice from the FA and when they give is a date then we’ll get ready and get prepared for that. But it’s a little bit of a strange one to be honest!”

“The not knowing has been with us throughout the pandemic, with not knowing what’s going on with people’s work, and now obviously with the football, we know what is going to happen with the League and that’s disappointing but we have to get round that.”

“But the not knowing about the Vase – realistically we might not be playing football for another three or four months – so what do we do with the players?”

“How do you keep the same players wanting to play those two or three players that would get you to Wembley? It’s a very, very strange time…”