Following the lockdowns, the Government indicated that sports could return to playing, though under strict conditions. Firstly, all sports teams had to be officially affiliated to the FA and follow a set of guidelines for safely returning to play.
As we were an ‘initiative’, this left with only one choice. We either had to affiliate as a team, or disband. It was clear that playing football again had a significant impact on the social, physical and mental health of our players, so the team was affiliated to Brinscall JFC.
We then began structuring the team in a more effective way. Moving from Sunday kickabouts, to playing friendly games against other teams, who were in a similar situation.