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COULD the day be coming when late kick-off slots on synthetic playing surfaces are used to avoid disruption to Junior football competitions?
The question is raised after Rob Roy manager Stewart Maxwell’s insightful response to the likelihood of his side’s Scottish Junior Cup fourthround tie at home to Musselburgh Athletic being postponed for a third consecutive weekend because of Guys Meadow being deemed unplayable.
Forecasts predicting temperatures will not rise above -3 tonight and crucially tomorrow into Saturday morning, brought Maxi and Kirkintilloch club officials to radically propose a switch of venue as well as kickoff time.
The upshot is the one remaining last-32 contest is now scheduled to go ahead at New Tinto Park on Saturday at 4.45pm, weather permitting, immediately following the West of Scotland Cup showdown between Benburb and Kilwinning Rangers.
This innovative and bold approach is one that could backfire upon Maxi even though he argues that the continuing run of postponements are hindering efforts to maintain the momentum that has enabled Rob Roy to go top of the Super Premier Division and be just 90 minutes away from a Scottish Cup fifth-round date with Penicuik Athletic.
“To go another week without a game is simply not fair on players, supporters, sponsors or indeed the Junior game’s No 1 competition and I sincerely hope our actions as a club will act as a catalyst for others to follow suit,” he said.
“Trying to implement our plans was anything but straightforward because there were a lot of obstacles in our sourcing an astrograss pitch even after getting the approval of Musselburgh and the SJFA but thankfully Benburb proved to be very accommodating.
“But now things are finally in place I’m quite relaxed about the whole idea and feel that making full use of synthetic surfaces through later kick-off times on a Saturday as well as in midweek under floodlights would be a solution to the dreaded fixture congestion that can horrendously impact on teams.
“There are cost implications to be taken into account, as the hiring of pitches doesn’t come cheap, but maybe a contribution from the powers-that-be might be available.
“Anything would be better than suffering weeks of inactivity like Girvan and Rutherglen Glencairn did in 2014 when their cup game was postponed on seven occasions.”
Rob Roy’s preparations for the head-to-head with the mid-table East Region outfit were honed on Tuesday night with a 9-0 friendly victory over Newmains United which saw hitman Willie Sawyers return from injury and make the score-sheet with a brace of goals, along with Shaun Fraser (with four), Reece Pearson, Liam Crichton and Gavin Mackie.
“Willie put in a great hour and tired as you might expect after 11 weeks on the sidelines but I’ve no complaints about his work ethic and you can take it that he is in our thoughts for Saturday,” Maxi said.
“His two-goal performance was the big man’s reward for working his socks off on his rehab programme compiled by the former Albion Rovers physiotherapist John McMenemy and I cannot speak highly enough of his attitude during the long absence.