Marlow boss Bartley gives Blues players a break to avoid 'mental fatigue'

Devontae Romeo

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With little indication of when the country is to come out of lockdown, Marlow boss Mark Bartley is keen for his players to switch off from football a little to avoid 'mental fatigue’.

The Blues boss spoke with his squad earlier this week to update them on the current situation and inform them they weren’t likely to be playing again for some time.

He also gave them a break from training over the Christmas and New Year period to recharge their batteries. It’s unlikely they’ll get back to league action until the middle of next month at the earliest, and the Isthmian League have said they’ll give clubs a 10-day notice period to get themselves ready for the restart, if and when that is.

“I’ve tried to be proactive with it,” said Bartley.

“I had a call with the players on Saturday. We spoke to them about the current situation.

“We told them that we’re locked down essentially, and that they wouldn’t be coming back before the end of January.

“And at that point we’d still need a two week period to get back ready.

“We told them to take Christmas and New Year off, and have a total break.

“There are lots of clubs that are doing various things. You try to keep the players fit and have them ticking over, but there is a risk of creating a bit of mental fatigue.

“It’s repetitive training with no end in sight. I was mindful of that so I wanted everyone to have a total break over Christmas and New Year to get away from it.

“On Saturday we spoke about how we would get ourselves back in the right state of mind with a 14 day notice period.”