The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Crawford sure of no sting in the tail from Wasps link-up
Stevie Crawford insists Dunfermline’s partnership with Alloa for next season can only be a “win-win situation” for both clubs.
The Pars are to use Alloa’s Indodrill Stadium as their training base for the coming campaign and could even play home games there in an emergency.
The arrangement is designed to ensure the Fifers have somewhere “bio-safe” to train during the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, while the clubs are set to share the costs of Covid-19 testing if needed.
Dunfermline have recently trained at Kelty Hearts’ ground but as the facility is owned by Fife Council there were concerns the squad could be left in the lurch if the local authority pulled the plug because of a “second spike” in the global health crisis.
Crawford said: “We still have a great gym facility at East End Park and, when you are working with players to try and develop them, that is a massive side of the game.
“The balance is one of the challenges that we face but in the main it was to get the safe, secure environment in which to train.
“With Covid you are not sure with council-owned facilities if these places could end up closing gates.
“The chairman and Mike Mulraney, the chairman at Alloa, have worked hard on it and I think that it is great for Scottish football that you have two clubs willing to work together.
“I can only see it as a win-win situation. Alloa over recent years have been one of the better parttime teams in Scotland – they were a thorn in our flesh last year – and I think it shows a strength in that both chairmen have tried to be creative and come up with a solution rather than seeing it as a problem.”
Crawford is awaiting the Betfred Cup fixtures before finalising his pre-season plans.
The Championship season kicks off with the Pars hosting Inverness Caley Thistle on October 17 but the earlier cup group stages leave some uncertainty for the Pars’ warm-up.
Crawford added: “We are looking at the first League Cup fixture being on October 6.
“But because there are five fixture dates and we are playing just four of them, it depends on when we are playing the first of them.
“If we are playing on October 6 we will be looking to start at the end of August but if the first fixture is on October 10 then we will be looking to start back around September 1.”