NO ESCAPE FROM THE COVID CHAOS
But Lennon insists our game MUST keep going
NEIL LENNON fears Scottish football is heading for another season of coronavirus chaos.
The Celtic manager takes his side to St Mirren tonight for their rearranged Premiership fixture after it was originally postponed due to Parkhead defender Boli Bolingoli’s breach of restrictions when he failed to quarantine on his return from a brief visit to Spain.
That, along with the infamous Aberdeen Eight’s night out, led to the Scottish Government applying pressure on the SPFL to have matches involving both clubs postponed.
Now, however, Lennon has called on football to find a way to continue through the
current crisis — with the nuclear option of another league season being prematurely curtailed the price to pay if they do not. However, yesterday proved another difficult day for the Scottish game as:
Three more players from Premiership side Hamilton were ordered to selfisolate for 10 days after testing positive for Covid-19, forcing Accies to cancel training and send their squad home to facilitate a deep clean of facilities.
The row over St Mirren being forced to face Hibs on Saturday despite losing three goalkeepers refused to die down, with boss Jim Goodwin claiming the SPFL would have treated Celtic and Rangers differently in the same circumstances.
Dundee United defender Mark Connolly was charged by the SFA following an alleged breach of the coronavirus rules, with a hearing scheduled for October 1.
League Two side Annan confirmed four of their players had tested positive following a pre-season training session. After the furore that surrounded the premature end to last season, Lennon is well aware that such a scenario is best avoided if at all possible. ‘Yeah, I don’t think that’s what anybody wants,’ said the Celtic boss. ‘To do it once probably wasn’t satisfactory to anyone, but for it to happen again would be unpalatable and not good for the game. ‘You want to avoid it, but, in my own view, we’ll probably get a second spike of this in society, because it seems to be the way these things pan out. ‘We’re just going to have to try and live with it the best we can. People have got to try to get back to as normal a life as possible, even though things aren’t normal, without being reckless with it.’ Lennon will come face to face with Goodwin this evening, with the Paisley manager still unhappy about the SPFL’s decision to allow Saturday’s game to go ahead. A coronavirus outbreak robbed the Buddies of Jak Alnwick, Dean Lyness and Peter Urminsky before the match. Goodwin said: ‘I don’t think there’s any point in us continuing to chase the SPFL for an explanation. We’d be wasting our time. I don’t think we are a big enough club where enough noise would be made out of it. ‘If something like this had happened to Celtic or Rangers then it’s a completely different story. Obviously, the size of those clubs, their fan base, stuff all over social media, would have dwarfed the kind of response we’ve had. ‘Our game against Hibs should not have gone ahead because of the extreme circumstances. They (the SPFL) have set a precedent now. ‘But I hope no other teams in the league find themselves in that position because I would not wish it on anyone.’ Lennon expressed sympathy for Goodwin. He said: ‘I’m not convinced that calling the game off would have been an ideal scenario either. But then I totally sympathise with Jim’s situation. ‘It obviously had an effect on their result, losing their goalkeepers so close to the game without any time to work with the player they brought in. ‘People are sometimes going to get this virus whether they are doing the right things or not, I think. You just have to have contingency plans in place. ‘I’m not saying St Mirren didn’t, but that’s totally out of the blue what happened to them. What happened to us was out of the blue.’ Dismissing suggestions that Celtic and Aberdeen were somehow extended a favour not granted to St Mirren when they had games postponed on government orders after players breached rules, Lennon added: ‘It was very disruptive to our plans and our preparations. ‘The players would have had two more games in their legs and we would have been up to speed more. ‘We went into the Ferencvaros game undercooked.’