Worksop Town defender says motivation may be hard to keep without football

Charlie Jemson fears motivation may be hit as the wait for football goes on.

The Tigers have not played competitively since October 31, where Worksop crashed out of the FA Trophy, however, they sat fifth in the league table after seven games.

Jemson explained the void that has been left due to not playing regularly.

“I don’t think that we will see people dropping out, but player’s motivation may drop because when you are stop-start throughout the season, you have to keep training on your own and that can be hard at times,” he said.

“In normal times, everyone would be enjoying it and you can just focus on it because it is just continuous, but when it is stop-start, it is hard to keep motivated and it is hard to keep fit and that can take its toll on people.

“You miss the banter throughout the group. You miss the structure of training on Tuesdays and Thursdays and everyone loves that matchday buzz on a Saturday.

“Without that, you go to work, come home, and you don’t know what to do with yourself.

“On a weekend without a game on Saturday, I am sat around thinking, ‘what do I do on a Saturday midday,’ because it is a big part of everybody’s lives who are involved with football, so it is a big culture shock to everyone.”

Jemson also believes that should the season be allowed to continue, Worksop could have had a successful ending, admitting it will be disappointing if the campaign is expunged.

“With how we started, and the feeling that you get from the team, there is no doubt that we would have gone on and done well this season,” said Jemson.

“We cannot control what is going off, it is out of our hands, but if it goes all downhill and the season gets cancelled then it will be a big kick in the teeth.

“There are a lot of questions and everything is up in the air and the situation is that we are coming up to February and we have only played seven league games.

“I don’t know if there is a solution where the league is split, and we play each other once – I really don’t know – but it would be a kick in the teeth if everything got cancelled because we would have gone on and done well.”