The right decision, but harsh on the top teams! Harborough Town and Lutterworth Town managers Stuart Spencer and Josh Dixon have their say as the UCL Premier is halted

All results have been expunged...
Stuart Spencer.Stuart Spencer.
Stuart Spencer.

Managers Stuart Spencer and Josh Dixon have backed the Football Association's decision to halt the United Counties League due to the Coronavirus outbreak... but both have offered their sympathies to rivals who have seen their promotion dreams dashed.

On Thursday the FA announced that all football below National League level for men and the Championship for women had been brought to an early close.

All football from steps three to seven in the National League System - which includes the UCL Premier where both Harborough Town and Lutterworth Town play - would have their results expunged, with promotion and relegation cancelled.

Josh Dixon.Josh Dixon.
Josh Dixon.

Some teams in the pyramid, including Jersey Bulls and Vauxhall Motors, had already secured promotions.

"I think it's the right decision because there's no date in the timeline telling us when we'll be back to normality," Swifts boss Dixon said.

"I think it's harsh on the teams who have won leagues and promotion. That was us last season and if It'd happened to me I'd be pulling my hair out.

"A lot of money and hard work goes into being successful as a football club, so I feel really sorry for any team in that position.

"There has to be one voice, the FA. It can't be one rule for one league and one for another.

"But they didn't speak to the clubs and I feel they've jumped the gun a little bit."

Harborough were ninth in the table and Lutterworth 13th as football came to a halt.

Bees manager Spencer added: "We were not involved in relegation or promotion issues, which were the key talking points.

"With the season being declared null and void we haven't been affected us in the same way as it would some teams who had secured promotion, or were in a strong position to do so.

"I wouldn't want to be the person at the FA making the decisions. From point of view, the FA couldn't win.

"Whatever the outcome, somebody was going to be left disappointed.

"Some people wanted to end the season on an average points per game scenario, but that would leave some teams arguing they would have had a better run-in and weren't allowed to pick up what they may see as easier points.

"It's also difficult with the relegation positions. It would be hard to relegate a team who haven't been given the full opportunity to seal their own fate."

Spencer added that he feels the Premier League - which, along with the English Football League, National League and top two tiers of the women's game, is currently on hold - may have to follow suit, otherwise teams from non-league will begin to cry foul.

"The next decision comes at the top of the tree and I don't see how the Premier League can do anything different, to be honest," he added.

"If they suddenly say 'we'll play on' then you'll have teams like Shepshed Dynamo asking why they can't carry on as well."