Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Gartcairnplea forthisseason tocontinue
Gartcairnbosswillie Kinniburgh has appealed to Scottishfa bosses not to scrap this season– because it would havea majorimpact on clubs at a higher level.
Thesuspension of lower league football has been extended until at least February 14, with an update expectedfour days earlier.
Kinniburgh says whether or notthe West ofscotland League resumes doesn’t makea great deal ofdifference forthe Airdrie club, becausethey’reina non-competitive leagueanyway.
But hesaysit wouldhavea knock-on effect further up thechain.
He said:“in our leagues, where you finish in theconferences doesn’t matter,nothing is going tochangeand hopefully things will go back to normal next season, whereas you’re looking at tier six looking for p ro m otio n i n tot h e Lowland Leagueand the Lowland League are looking fora promotion into Leaguetwo.
“Atthat level youhavetwoort h ree full-time teamsin there, so to drawa line under it this year would cause more problemsthan solutions.
“Theyneed to havesome solutions sotheyneed to come to some arrangement whenwe’re allowed to get back, tothenfinish it somehow.”
Newfixtures forthe first four games of there-start have been published without givendates and Kinniburgh added:“it’s justa waiting game, really.
“We’re just hoping to be back at some point,possibly atthe start of March, but even atthat it’s probably just a chance to get maybe half a dozengames or so before theend of the season.
“We all thoughtit wouldhave beena lot easier and things wouldhave beena lot better than they are at the moment.
“It is a bitof a mess, but you’ve just got to look atthe way thecountry is, in termsof businesses,jobsand see how lucky we were to getany football.”
Gartcairn are dueto face Johnstone Burgh on their return to Conference B.