D’Andre Wainwright, the Billingham Synthonia striker, is keeping his fingers crossed that his team’s home clash with Wolviston in the opening round of the Durham Challenge Cup today goes ahead as planned.

Wainwright and his fellow team-mates were prevented from playing competitively after non-elite football was suspended as part of Boris Johnson’s four-week national lockdown in Britain to tackle the rising cases of coronavirus.

“Hopefully everything goes good so we can actually play,” Wainwright told The Royal Gazette. “Everyone is very pleased and fit to restart the season.”

Despite being unable to play, the former Somerset Trojans and Bermuda Under-20 player and his team-mates were still able to train throughout the lockdown to help maintain their fitness.

“We trained once or twice a week ,” Wainwright said. “So it’s not like we weren’t training or kicking a ball at all.”

The cup-tie against Wolviston at the Norton Sports Complex will be the first of back-to-back matches in the space of three days for Billingham who will also host Carlisle City in the league on Saturday.

Dave Dickson’s side, who are fifth in the 20-team Northern League Division Two standings, will be keen to get back to winning ways, having suffered a 1-0 defeat away to Tow Law Town in their previous league outing on October 31.

Meanwhile, Wainwright had been in prolific form before the lockdown in what is the player’s debut season in English non-League football.

The 20-year-old started the campaign at Durham City where he scored eight goals in nine appearances, including a hat-trick on his club debut in a 4-3 defeat at home to Willington, before joining Billingham in October.

In a twist of irony, the player netted a second hat-trick of the season and had an assist on his debut for new club Billingham in a 7-1 thrashing of his former club Durham.

Wainwright has so far netted four goals in as many appearances for his new club.

He was initially recommended to Durham by scouts after being spotted playing for Somerset, and agreed to join the club in April after impressing the coaching staff.