COLWYN Bay manager Craig Hogg is hoping for further clarification in the coming weeks from the Welsh Government and Football Association of Wales regarding a confirmed date for the new season.

The Seagulls’ were left in limbo like every other club operating outside of the JD Cymru Premier regarding the latest FAW announcement regarding phase three, which is a lengthy process that means competitive football won’t resume until mid-November at the earliest.

Hogg’s squad have been training for a number of weeks now in the lead-up to some good news that was not exactly forthcoming, and it remains to be seen whether further restrictions will be put in place with coronavirus cases rising across the country.

He said: “Like everyone else, we’ve worked hard since we were allowed to report back for training and we’ve strictly worked within the Tier 2 protocols given to us, in the hope that we might have had an outside chance of kicking off the new campaign at some point in October.

“That’s clearly not going to be the case now, but as a group, we’ve tempered our own frustrations because we follow the news too and we see what going on at the moment.

“For the time being it’s about staying fit and ready and the lads have been beyond brilliant in that respect.

“We do need warm-up games, however, to kick on with our conditioning work and fingers crossed that will happen at some point in October all being well.

“Of course, It won’t be ideal playing those games against teams from within our own division because no team will want to give away any trade secrets, but it’s better than nothing.”

Hogg is also calling on the FAW to release more information regarding game duration and the number of players allowed at the earliest possible opportunity and give players “who have been through so much” some semblance of hope to hold onto during an unprecedented period of disruption.

“You can kind of see the thinking behind that stipulation in the phase three protocols, as a ‘bubble’ of sorts would likely have now been created for teams in tier 2 because we’ve all implemented strict screening and record-keeping, temperature checking and social distancing measures as the tier 2 specific protocols dictate,” added Hogg.

“That should at least allow for safe football to return in the form of friendly games at our level, but what that will actually look like in terms of game duration or the number of squad players thy can be used is anyone’s guess.

“We hope that’s clarified in the coming weeks. We’ve got something to plan for and look forward to and in eight weeks’ time we could be kicking the season off.

“That’s what we are all praying for especially after everything we’ve all been through the last 6 months.”