ST ASAPH City manager Daniel Brewerton stated the full impact of a lost season won’t be fully known until restrictions are lifted.

The Saints were looking forward to taking their place in the new Ardal North Leagues system after meeting Tier 3 criteria implemented by the Football Association of Wales, which came after a sensational effort from the club after floods decimated their ground and playing surface last year.

Following the FAW’s announcement regarding the season being cancelled, Brewerton and his staff have given their squad some space to focus on other things after so much uncertainty over the last year in the hope they can come back invigorated when they get the green light.

He said: “I think we’d all worked so hard around all the restrictions with the belief that the season would get up and running, when the announcement came it was a real blow and left everyone feeling very deflated.

“We thought the best thing to would just allow everyone the time to just do their own thing for a while and concentrate on whatever work and family commitments and concerns they have.”

Brewerton also outlined his fears about the future of the domestic game after so much inactivity, with what comes next this summer crucial to the sustainability of the Welsh pyramid system after the governing body primarily focused their attention on the money-spinning JD Cymru Premier and not much else.

“I hope this doesn’t have a big impact on the domestic game but it’s a real possibility it will have,” he added.

“People that invest a lot of their time and efforts into the local game will have found themselves with a lot of time on their hands the last 12 months and you wonder what they might have found to fill the void, is it something they want to go back to?

“Will they have found that they haven’t missed it like they thought they would? We’ll only know for sure once the restrictions are lifted and we start trying to get going again.

“I think the last 12 months from a football perspective has been very difficult, the constant chopping and changing of rules, planning and preparation, timescales constantly being moved, trying to keep players motivated and engaged whilst struggling with motivation yourself at times, knowing that all that time and effort was for nothing.

“Of course, I’ve missed the game massively, I just hope it’s the same game we put on hold 12 months ago.”