BURY AFC’s chairman admits he is just pleased to be able to talk about football again.

The North West Counties League resumes action on Saturday after a six-week pause having first been delayed by the second national lockdown and then the Government initially decreeing that spectators could not attend games in Tier 3 areas.

That Covid-19 guidance has now changed with 150 fans to be in attendance when Andy Welsh’s AFC welcome Garstang to the Neuven Stadium sitting second in the First Division North.

Just five league games have been played in an inaugural season that presents challenge after challenge for chairman Chris Murray and his team.

He said: “You think being chairman of a football club is going to be hard work but then you’re chairman of a football club during a pandemic where the season starts, the season stops etc.

“You’re always checking guidance and having to see how many fans you can have in, what you can do with regards to food and drink and obviously it’s not a normal season.

“It’s just one of those things where we’ll start off with reduced capacity again and it looks like we won’t be able to have a full house all season. But at least we’ll be able to get football played, we’ve got the streaming set up and we’re able to give people something to smile about.”

Murray is full of praise for the work done by everyone at the club over the last few weeks, from those running social media accounts to his manager. Now, like everyone involved in non-league football, it is hoped that the coronavirus-impacted season can progress relatively smoothly from here on in.

“The cancellation of football for five or six weeks wasn’t too helpful for us because we’d started to get ourselves into a good position after starting from scratch,” said Murray.

“You almost felt like you were back to square one a bit. Andy and the backroom staff have been brilliant and kept the players motivated. Our social media team have been amazing trying to keep fans and members engaged.

“I’m happy to get the focus back on playing football.

“It’s just a case of trying to get a run of games under our belts and just keep on going and see what we can do in the coming months.

“The season appears at the moment like it will be December through to May with a lot of games condensed in, but we just have to look at it and make sure we’re doing all that we can to support Andy and the boys and be as fair as possible to fans with regards to tickets. Fingers crossed we can get the season completed.”