BILLERICAY Town have confirmed they will resume their National League South season on Saturday.

The campaign had been suspended for the past fortnight amid talks surrounding whether or not the competition would continue.

But Town have now revealed they will be back in action this weekend when St Albans City visit New Lodge.

A club statement said: “As a club, we have deliberately remained silent and continued to work with the league to find a way through what is an extremely difficult situation for all concerned.

“It is also an issue which has attracted very differing points of view from both clubs and fans. We respect everyone’s opinion and especially those of fellow clubs as everyone has different circumstances.

“However, our job as custodians of Billericay Town FC is to do the right thing for our club, our commercial sponsors, the staff, the players and our fan base.

“That is not just about ensuring the financial viability of the club for the future but the immediate health and safety of all involved.

“For the first part of this season, we had the money from the lottery grant, as well as our own season ticket money and corporate sponsorship, to cover our costs.”

But the statement confirmed that had now changed.

It said: “Since the beginning of this year we have had to increasingly provide funds ourselves to cover the season continuing.

“That would remain the case until either additional funding is provided or until restrictions are lifted and we can use our facilities and have fans back in.

“That is an unsustainable position when there is no clarity on what is likely to happen over the next few weeks.”

As a result, Billericay now look set to field a young starting line up on Saturday.

“After due consideration, and conversations with the league, we have agreed that we will fulfil the fixture to allow time for more clarity on both the vote of the league continuing and on the potential funding situation,” added the statement.

“To maintain a financially stable position, and to ensure that our contracted players can remain furloughed with income, we will be fielding a team comprising of our existing five non-contracted players and our under 23 side.

“We have funded Covid testing for this group of players and they are training in advance of the game.

“Our staff and volunteers will be subject to the full Covid protocols as always “This is obviously not an ideal scenario but allows us to meet our obligations in the best way that we can at this stage.

“We will review the situation on a ‘game by game’ basis and in line with continued dialogue with all parties. We ask for our fans’ continued patience, backing and understanding.”