CHAIRMAN Wayne Taylor has revealed that Pickering Town's division could be split into two regionalised sections should the pandemic continue to delay non-league football's return.

Football action below Step 2 was suspended until at least December 2 last week amid the second national lockdown brought in by the government.

As a result, Pickering's Pitching In Northern Premier League north/west division season has been put on hold after just nine league games.

Questions now turn to how the remainder of the 2020/21 season is resolved with Taylor disclosing that a regional split in the division is a possibility.

"There are two options," he said. "We can start again in December and then we'll play more evening games.

"If we do start playing football again in December, we'll still need one or two weeks to be training again before we start playing competitive football.

"It's going to be hard for everybody but we've just got to put the trust into our own players that they do their bit.

"The other objective is to split the objective into half and just play half of the teams rather than playing a full season.

"The suggestion is that, if it does come to it and we're in lockdown for longer than eight weeks, then it could be that the division gets regionalised into two.

"That will mean that you're only playing your regional sides and we won't have to travel to the likes of Manchester and places like that.

"That would split in half the division and then we'll still work out promotion and relegation through out.

"It is realistic possibility and to be quite honest, it's better than not playing football at all."

On the original decision to suspend the season for a a minimum of a month, Taylor added: "It was inevitable that something was going to happen and it's just a shame that it has because we want all want football to carry on.

"But understandably I can why they've done it to be quite honest.

"We would have all liked for football to have continued but we can't survive with no crowds."