Kelvin Thomas on the news that fans won't return next month and how it impacts the Cobblers

Chairman Kelvin Thomas remains hopeful Cobblers supporters will be allowed back into the PTS Academy Stadium at some point this season despite the 'disappointing' news that they won't return next month.

Pilot events, such as Saturday's League One fixture between Shrewsbury and Northampton, have been held throughout September in a bid to find a safe way to get crowds back into grounds by October 1st.

But that programme has now been 'paused' by the government due to the rising coronavirus cases across the country, which has prompted frustration and concern in equal measure among EFL clubs.

"I think it's disappointing overall and tough to understand," admitted Thomas, who confirmed the Cobblers were hoping to stage a pilot event themselves this weekend. "We don't have the full scientific information that the government has but the pilots went very well and I think that's where the frustration is for football.

"The club and the safety advisory group have done a tremendous of work to get the ground ready because we had actually applied for one of the trial games this weekend but obviously that's not going ahead.

"We had done all the work and we were ready to go if needed because we want to get fans back in as soon as possible but at the moment it's only a pause and it's going to be reviewed and I think there is a lot of pressure from all the authorities to make sure that review is ongoing."

Despite today's news, Thomas still thinks fans could be back into grounds this season and, depending on how the situation develops, it might be 'sooner rather than later'.

He added: "It'll have a short-term impact but it could actually have a medium to longer term benefit if these measures help get the numbers under control because that might allow us to have bigger numbers in grounds quicker than through the trials process we were going through.

"It's all going to be about how the numbers react. We saw it here in Florida because we were seen as the epicentre of the pandemic in America and the cases were going up but the authorities kept quite calm and it's definitely improved over the last few weeks.

"The numbers didn't go up as high or as quickly as predicted and they're actually now going down again, so I've seen it here that there is a positive way out of this - but it all comes down to following the guidelines and making sure we get fans in when we can."

On how it'll impact the Cobblers financially, Thomas said: "Obviously it will have an impact on us. We haven't looked at it in detail yet because it's only happened today but every game that goes by without fans is lost income.

"We've also got season ticket holders that aren't going to get in as quickly as we'd have liked. We are offering them iFollow for free and most have taken up that offer so they're seeing games, but we'll have to keep reviewing that on an ongoing basis.

"We've got to understand what the timing is and when we can get fans back into the ground. I've always felt it's not as bad as it looks straightaway and I'm relatively confident that we will get fans in the ground at some point this season, maybe sooner rather than later.

"It is tough to feel that way after today's announcement and people are feeling a bit sore on that but we won't rush anything. We'll keep in touch with the EFL and everyone knows that our preference is to get fans back in the ground as quickly as it's safe to do so."