THE second national lockdown may have come at the wrong time for Tadcaster Albion, but manager Paul Quinn believes lessons learnt earlier in the year will help them on the other side.

Footballing activity below Step 2 in the pyramid has been on hold since November 5 - just when fortunes had started to change for Northern Premier League north/west division outfit Taddy.

After four October defeats on the bounce, the Brewers recorded back-to-back victory over Prescot Cables and Kendal Town, scoring six goals and conceding just one.

Quinn was a vocal opponent to the lockdown and wrote to the Government in defence of grassroots football, its benefits to mental health and the mitigated risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus among participants.

But the disruption is not as much of an unknown quantity as it was when the first lockdown was introduced back in March.

And Quinn is looking on the bright side, with injured players expected to return for the antici-pated December restart, and hopes that Taddy can make the most of the knowledge they have been acquiring from spring onwards.

“It had been a hard lesson for the new team as this season finally got going,” Quinn said. “We had been hit by more than our fair share of injuries and suspensions while results in a few matches had not gone quite as we had hoped.

“But we learnt from those times and in our last two matches before the second lockdown, we showed that we had started to turn things around with convincing wins against Prescot Cables and Kendal.

“It was so frustrating to then have the second lockdown. I felt so strongly about it that I wrote to the DCMS (Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) to point out that clubs such as ours had complied with all Government guidance and that there was no definitive evidence to indicate that this activity, played outdoors predominantly by healthy young people, had contributed adversely to the infection.

“There is a great diversity between our squad players – some are ex-professionals, some are students, some have regular employment, others are part-time.

“Lockdown has affected each of them differently. We needed to come up with something to help them and keep team spirit high while maintaining a good degree of fitness. plus mental stability.

“We now meet via Zoom three times each week. We can happily accommodate up to 36 people at once, which means room for the first team, the emerging talent squad, plus all the support staff. We can then reduce numbers for ‘breakout’ groups.

“Strength and conditioning coach Olly Parker is providing guidance to maintain fitness while staying connected mentally, while the insights team, led by Darren Huart, provides the opportunity with the help of data, match videos and analysis of what we’re doing right but also areas where we need to be better. Physio Abbey Halliwell can advise those with injuries and we would hope that, with the exception of Jake Rose, every player will be fit to resume training on the second of December.

“We encourage players who live near each other to meet at a local park etc for one-to-one training.

“We have learnt a lot since the initial lockdown and that has put us in a strong position to maximise what we can now do to help.

“We have a terrific camaraderie within this squad – we cannot wait to get back to league action in December.”