THINGS might be moving in the right direction in terms of a restart.

This week I have received a plan from the RFL with a provisional fixture list starting in August with every team playing each other once to get the season completed by the end of November.

Hopefully, that will give a season of integrity and allow promotion and relegation to happen. We would keep our two victories from the Doncaster and Coventry fixtures and the planned first-half of the season would be the games to be played.

The play-offs would be reduced to a semi-final and a final, but I would hope to avoid these with our plum fixtures versus Newcastle and Workington being at home.

There are also plans to still go ahead with the 1895 Cup but with potentially only the top eight ranked teams in the Championship.

That would be disappointing to all at the Raiders and I have sent a suggestion to the RFL to extend this to 16 teams and have a midweek fixture or alternatively have a League One Cup and a triple header on finals day.

It seems that Old Trafford is booked for October and that could now be used for the Challenge Cup final along with the 1895 Cup curtain raiser.

Back at the Raiders, we are further enthused by reports coming from government that bars may be able to open earlier than expected.

Everyone at the Raiders is determined to offer a safe outdoor environment for the public to enjoy a drink to socialise - at a distance - with friends and family that they may not have seen for some time.

We have been busy putting together a plan to make ourselves safe that includes sanitiser stations, lots of education for stewards, signage, queuing systems for toilets, card payments and restricted numbers.

We know there is nervousness from some sections of the public so we are determined to make our ground the safest it can possibly be. We would hope the public enjoy themselves but bring their common sense.

I get asked a lot of questions around how we are coping financially and whilst it is true that a lot of our income streams have dried up we have taken advantage of all the government schemes to good effect.

Clearly the furlough scheme has been a godsend paying 80 per cent of staff wages but the club has made the decision to top this up so everyone receives their full wage. We believe that treating people well will have long term dividends.

We have also deferred our tax and NI payments but the truth is that they are sat in our bank account in case of crisis and we are in a position to pay when required.

We are actually in a strong financial position and whilst I believe 2021 will be tough, I believe we are ready to make giant strides as a club.