Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Gartcairn back null and void WOSL call
Chairman Peacock excited for future as club plan for next term
Gartcairn chairman Martin Peacock says continuing the West of Scotland League ‘would have been bordering on stupidity’.
League bosses pulled the plug on the season last week, and Peacock says trying to finish the campaign – or half of it – would have been pointless.
Peacock reckons this way they can start back from scratch and he has revealed the Airdrie club have already started looking at getting up and running for next season, which he hopes can start earlier than normal.
He said: “If I’m being honest, I’m delighted they came to that decision – I don’t think there was much merit in trying to finish off any of the leagues, or finish off any of the games.
“We would need to have done a pre-season – there’s only so much the manager can do remotely with the guys, and unless you can physically see them doing the work and monitor what they’re doing in actual game-time, there’s no way you would be able to play seriously competitive games and finish off 50 per cent of a season.
“It would have been verging on stupidity to try and do it, and I’m delighted that it hasn’t gone ahead.
“As much as I love my football – and I’ve gone on about mental health and getting back – it would have been silly to try and finish the league off, or finish half of it, or whatever.”
The club have managed to get some big earners off their wage bill and are now gearing up for another crack at the West of Scotland League.
Preparations off the pitch have been going well also, with improvements made at MTC Park.
Peacock added: “We’re looking forward to starting a fresh process, going into pre-season fresh, and starting again.
“We sold Steven Saunders to East Kilbride, we let Martin Grehan go back to BSC and finish off his season, and Gary Harkins never really started, so the wage bill didn’t take the pounding that it could have done if we had held onto these guys for another season.
“Right from that announcement there, the backroom guys, Willie Kinniburgh and the two coaches, were right back into recruitment, seeing who they can entice along.
“We’ve made a lot of changes up at MTC Park, we’ve got our stands in and we’ve upgraded changing facilities.
“There will be a good start to the new season, it will be a good showpiece, to show any potential new recruits that we’re a serious club and we’re still ambitious, because we’re still spending on the infrastructure and trying to push the game on, and push us on.
“We’re as determined as we were this time last year, we’re extremely ambitious and we’ll keep pushing on.
“With the facilities we’ve put in place hopefully it’s going to increase the level of player that we’re able to attract.
“We’ve always tried to lift to a really professional standard at Gartcairn with everything that we do.
“The message from me is that it’s all in place, we’ve got everything there, let’s push on and be as ambitious as we were last year.”
Peacock also says now that things have changed, there’s no reason to rigidly stick to an August start to the new campaign.
He said: “We would be up for starting the season early when we’ve got semidecent weather.
“It would be silly for them to stick to the old calendar, let’s get it underway four or five weeks earlier, and get games in some relatively good weather.”