Marine boss Neil Young scraps visit to Spurs to cast eye over FA Cup third round opponents

Marine manager Neil Young abandoned his plan to watch FA Cup third-round opponents Spurs play Leeds on Saturday as a Covid precaution.

The non-leaguers are being tested twice before the biggest match of their history next Sunday and the risk of Young making a 445-mile round trip outweighed the benefits of being able to study Jose Mourinho’s Premier League side live.

‘It was decided due to current Covid circumstances that I wouldn’t travel down to London for the Spurs game,’ confirmed Young. ‘Gutted but we have to be careful.’

Some Marine players have jobs involving helping to control the pandemic. Defender Danny Shaw is an NHS physio who has worked on a Covid ward while Josh Solomon-Davies is involved in the national track and trace service.

Marine have played only four times since their 1-0 second-round win over Havant on November 29, due to the Northern Premier League closing because of Covid. Their players had a first Covid test on Friday at their Rossett Park ground. They will take a second test, in common with all 64 clubs in the third round, later this week.

Merseyside was moved into Tier three last Wednesday, meaning Marine will not be allowed to have any supporters present for the Spurs tie.

Young said: ‘Of course we are gutted not to have any fans in. It was always about playing at our ground so the supporters could watch.

‘But we are looking forward to it. We won’t have played for a while because our league is closed down until mid-January at least.

‘There is nothing better than competitive football but it does give us fair recovery time. You could say we were fresh in the second round against Havant [after 22-day break] because we won the game.’