WHITCHURCH Alport co-chairman Luke Goddard remains busy in his role at the club, with the COVID-19 pandemic delaying his planned departure.

Plans for many have been put on hold while lockdown continues and Goddard should have been relinquishing his role as interim chairman once the season had ended.

But he continues to share the role with the recently-appointed Tony Rogers and he says he cannot see that particular partnership ending any time soon.

“I’ve never been one for titles so I’m not sure what you could call me these days,” he said.

“It’s almost impossible to do anything at the moment because we’re not able to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) and there’s only so much you can do via email.”

Something else that has gone on the backburner is the club’s search for a new manager following the dismissal of Matt Burton last month.

Goddard says he was expecting much more interest from applicants with more local knowledge.

“We have received a lot of applications for the role and some of the CVs that we have seen have been really impressive,” he added.

“Plenty of them have had experience with football league clubs and the vast majority have managed at step five and higher.

“There has to be a certain demographic though and we have had applications from as far north as Blackpool and as far east as Padiham. We will be thanking them for their interest, but how can we consider putting someone in charge who has no knowledge of local players.

“We don’t have to rush into any decision and will take our time to seek out the right candidate for the post.”

Goddard has paid tribute to his club’s supporters after a fantastic uptake on an initiative to raise much-needed funds since football ceased.

Fans were asked to pay £10 or more to replicate what they may spend on a matchday and more than 40 people every week have responded to fill the otherwise barren coffers at Yockings.

“We can’t thank everyone enough for their donations,” added Goddard.

“How many times have we said it now. Every time you think you’ve seen it all here something else happens which makes you realise what a special club we have.”

“Every single penny that comes into the football club at a time like this is appreciated more than ever and thankfully we don’t have the financial constraints that many clubs in our position have.

“Much of that is down to what we have created here and we can count ourselves extremely fortunate to have such a fantastically loyal fan base.”