Manager Courtney Belford says his side have to try and turn their enforced month-long break into a positive, but admits it’s not ideal to have their mid-season hiatus.
AFC were on a run of seven games without defeat before the second lockdown hit, with six of them wins to lift Belford’s side into Division One’s top four.
It means the national restrictions have halted AFC’s momentum picked up throughout October, but Belford says his side have to try and use to their advantage.
He wants his players to be raring to go once the action restarts again, with the planned resumption at Nuneaton Griff in just under a month’s time.
He said: “We’ve said to the lads to not let ourselves down. We’ll be as prepared as we can, and hopefully that time will come again on 12th December.
“We’ve put in so much hard work so it’s important not to sit back in this spell. We’ve got to use the month to keeping getting fitter.
“We need to do enough outside football to keep ourselves ticking over and it’s a chance for people like Ky Green and Lewis Rankin, who haven’t played much football this year, to get fitter.
“Hopefully all the lads will miss their football as they did during the summer, and want to get bang at it again next month. We obviously wanted to keep playing but it’s out of our hands and we’ve got to turn it into a positive.”
Belford says he and his management team will keep in touch with the squad during lockdown, but that social media means the players can keep as tight-knit during the break as they were while the action was still going on.
“We’ll make regular contact with the players between myself, Joe, Ryan and Andy.
“The lads have all got their WhatsApp group chat and all the social media and group chats are really beneficial when they can’t get together.
“We’ve got a really good group here, there’s not one player in there that I don’t like being around and working with. They’re all here for the right reasons and want the best for the club.”
