Wealdstone’s National League season may not go ahead on October 3 as planned, if supporters are unable to attend.

Plans for supporters to return to watch games from October 1 have been shelved due to a sharp rise in the number of cases of coronavirus across the country.

A decision is expected to be made at a board meeting on Thursday, but it is understood that the National League want games to be played in front of spectators, with the league’s chairman Brian Barwick previously stating that he feared clubs would “suffer severe economic hardship” if fans were not allowed to return to stadiums in the near future, with teams at that level heavily reliant on matchday income.

The league had recently received approval for its clubs to hold test events as part of a wider programme to pilot the safe return of spectators to sporting fixtures. That will no longer be permitted to take place.

The news has been met with anger by the owners of some clubs from the National League, including Boreham Wood chairman Danny Hunter who described the league as “incompetent” on the club’s YouTube channel.“First and foremost, the league needs to have a consultation with its owners and chairman.

“I found out about the league’s decision, that if spectators weren’t allowed in the ground that the league wouldn’t start through a managers meeting which was conducted by the chief exec Michael Tattersall.

“It is hard for me to say what I feel because it is actually difficult to look at certain incompetence of the chief executive.

“You can’t make that decision as a league without talking to the owners and chairman. You don’t give that sort of information to managers. Managers don’t pay the staff, they don’t pay the players and they don’t pay themselves.”