Holt says SPFL must be ready for test delays
LIVINGSTON manager Gary Holt is adamant Scottish football will have to prove ‘flexible’ during its postcoronavirus recovery and should steel itself for the postponement of a league game because of issues with Covid19 testing.
Rangers’ friendly against Motherwell had to be put back two hours because the results of mandatory medical examinations had not been returned in time, whilst Hibernian’s bounce game against Ross County at the weekend was scrapped altogether because the capital club’s test scores were delayed.
County manager Stuart Kettlewell was left livid by the call-off, with his players having reached Perth on their long journey south from the Highlands only to be left without vital game-time so close to the kick-off to the new campaign.
However, Holt, whose side take on County at the Tony Macaroni Arena tomorrow, is taking a more pragmatic approach to the necessary hurdles clubs are having to clear to ensure the season gets the go-ahead, and insists everyone should expect hiccups along the way.
“It’s not pleasant,” said Holt when asked about the nowweekly tests, which he says are ‘absolutely horrible’. “But it’s like the new norm, something you are just going to have to deal with. And there are going to be bumps in the road – just deal with it.
“It’s not ideal [when there are delays in the results]. But I don’t see it as anyone’s fault, as such. It’s too easy to turn around and say, ‘it’s his fault, no, it’s his fault’.
“If it happens, it happens. We’ll put the game back. I think we’ve all got to be a wee bit more flexible about it. And, if it happens and the game gets called off, it happens. No fans are missing out, are they?
“We’re not in a position yet that everything’s so nailed on that we know everything will work.
“We know the procedures we have. We know what we’re doing every day and every game. But there will be times when it falls down. A test might come back as invalid – at the last minute. And that could be the last sample of the bunch that’s getting tested. You can’t plan for that.
“So, we just need to be flexible enough to react, hold our hands up and say, ‘look, it’s happened’.
“At the end of the day, we’ve not got a winter break so there are plenty of times to play games.”
Meanwhile, Holt insists he is taking a similarly matter-offact approach to the continued speculation surrounding star striker Lyndon Dykes.
The 24-year-old has attracted apparent suitors on both sides of the border, most notably Rangers, whose manager, Steven Gerrard, has confessed are in desperate need of an attacker after the hamstring injury sustained by Jermain Defoe against Motherwell.
With the likes of Stoke City, Cardiff City, Blackburn Rovers and Derby County all having been linked with possible moves for Dykes, Holt is adamant there have been no approaches and that the former Queen of the South marksman is being kept fully in the picture by the club over his future.
“There’s been nothing,” he added. “Lyndon knows and we’ve got a very good dialogue with all the players. The players know where we’re coming from as a club, so there’s no grey areas.
“It’s hypothetical, it might never happen and he’s here for a long time and we get the rewards of the work we’ve put into him and the work he’s put in. I’m not bothered, if it happens, it happens. It’s part and parcel of football and we’ll dust ourselves down and move on.”