CEO Mark Ashton says Town’s Playford Road Covid protocols, which among other aspects mean U18s and U23s matches are played without supporters present, are set to continue until after the winter period and have been praised by the EFL.
Asked at last night’s fans’ forum whether there are plans to allow fans back into Playford Road to watch matches, Ashton said: "Playford Road is a challenge. I’ll answer that question in two or three pieces. Covid is still rife and, no illusions, we are really nervous around it with the players.
"There is still a protective bubble at Playford Road, that means that the U18s and the U23s don’t train and are not on site at the same time as the first team.
"The way Playford Road is built, you can’t segregate and there are too many people on site and we’re risking the first team players contracting it and having to lose them for games. We’re one of a handful of teams who are still travelling away with their first team on two coaches.
"Andy Rolls, our director of performance, is really clear with the medical team, they want the protocols kept in place.
"So until we probably come through this winter period, this peak, I think those protocols will remain. Trust me, we want to get out of them as quickly as we can.
"We were actually held up by the League at a meeting around 10 days ago as the club who is doing this right.
"I can’t comment on how other clubs do it but our health and safety teams, our doctors, our medical teams, our stadium management have been really clear on working with the Safety Advisory Group on what we should do and we’re just trying to do the right thing.
"We want to protect the fans as best we can, we certainly need to protect the players as best we can and I think if we all work together to do that, we can come through this as quickly as possible because, trust me, we want fans back at Playford Road, we want you all back to normality. But it’s a difficult period and we’re just trying to manage it the best we can.”