Barrow should be awarded promotion – Sam Ricketts
Sam Ricketts believes National League bosses should reward leaders Barrow with promotion to the Football League despite the season’s premature ending.
Shrewsbury boss Ricketts, who started last season in charge at National League Wrexham before he made the switch to Shropshire, feels the best outcome is for play-offs to be null and voided.
The National League this week cancelled the remainder of the 2019/20 season but ‘sporting outcomes’ are yet to determine possible promotions. Barrow lead Harrogate Town by four points.
Shrewsbury Town remain on track to play out the remaining 10 games of their League One campaign, with the EFL board still determined for its divisions to be concluded.
“You’ve finished the leagues and where you are now is where you finish,” Ricketts said when asked about possible National League conclusions.
“I think you could easily do it where you don’t relegate anyone, but you can promote up (due to Bury’s demise).
“So with Barrow, who had a very good season and were pushing to win the league, you say ‘well done, you get promoted’.
“What they do with play-offs is probably just to leave them, to be honest. It’s very harsh and a bit unlucky to teams in the play-offs, but we’re in a situation that hasn’t allowed the competitions to finish as everyone would have liked to.”
“It’s another sign of the severity of the situation we’re in,” Ricketts added on the decision to cancel the non-league’s top tiers.
“Everyone know fully understands it and probably didn’t three or four weeks ago.
“You can understand the reasons behind it. It’s obviously disappointing, but everyone’s heath and safety is more important than trying to finish off those games.”