North Caledonian League bosses have given been explaining why they opted to carry on with the season amid record Covid cases.
The midweek meeting allowed the sides to discuss the possibility of pausing the campaign as Saturday sees the return to action after the winter break.
However, the majority of sides felt the benefits of playing, where possible, carries the most weight, and they voted to play on.
It’s not the first time clubs have played during the pandemic and, despite the Omicron variant hitting the country hard, the experience of putting all the necessary protocols in place has stood them in good stead.
A challenging scenario
Charlie Alway, who is manager of Orkney, believes we have to live with the challenges the virus brings, but be mindful of each club and individuals’ situation.
He said: “It’s not an ideal scenario for anyone. It’s easier for the home teams. You have to know your numbers when you’re travelling.
“I do think we need to try and keep going because otherwise the season won’t get finished. We also have the weather to contend with. My wind chart for January 15 is a real stinker! We potentially have very high winds that weekend.
“I totally understand why the league wanted to have the meeting to see how people were feeling.
“In my mind, the jeopardy has gone from the situation in a lot of ways. A year ago, we were really scared about people bringing the virus into our communities.
“Now, that fear has gone a little but because (the) virus is in all of our communities. We’re not going to be the vector.
“It is more about the inconvenience, difficulty and challenges caused by it. Have you got enough boys? Making sure everyone is taking their lateral flow tests and organising transport and showers and factors like that.
“It has gone from being scary and dangerous to being challenging and disruptive.
“On the plus side, guys get so much from training and playing. Even if three or four are missing, even when you are isolating, knowing you have that to come back to is mentally really good for the players.
“Stevie Reid, who was at Thurso for many years, has finished there and the job we’re doing now compared to five years ago is totally unrecognisable. It’s a real challenge for amateur football, but with a bit of understanding from all sides, we need to try and carry on. There isn’t the perfect scenario anymore.”
Nairn boss reconsidered own stance
Nairn County reserves boss Stuart Finnie explained he changed his mind over whether or not to play on.
He said: “A couple of weeks ago, I had the view we should probably take a break.
“However, with keeping tabs on what’s going on, I don’t see it getting better any time soon. If we go into an enforced break now, we could be sitting on it for four to six weeks until it all calms down.
“Therefore, I am against pausing the season now. As long as we can field a team, that’s what we’ll do.
“As a club, we’re taking lateral flow tests before every training session and every game. That’s maybe why we’re showing up more cases. We’re doing a lot more testing, although it is a directive of the SFA.
“We have been training with the first team and, at times, you’d be lucky to field a team between the two squads.
“It’s not been ideal, but we need to try and manage it as best we can. We might not have the strongest sides out, but we will always aim to be as competitive as we can.
“There have been a couple of times where we could have called off, but we played on anyway. It’s possibly happened against us.”
He added: “We were all aware at the start of the season this could happen, so although it doesn’t sound great, I do agree with playing on now.
“If people come to me and say they are not comfortable with playing, there would be no backlash.”
Sides knew Covid rise was coming
Manager of league leaders Loch Ness, Shane Carling, also stressed there is no element of surprise for sides that the virus would take hold in the winter.
He said: “We went through all this last season and knew it was going to happen again.
“If teams are struggling with Covid, the games should be called off. Safety comes first, but as a club we’ve signed 25 players, so if we have five or six missing, we have other boys there to come in.
“We want to carry on. If we stop now, who’s to say it won’t be worse in three or four weeks? If we paused it for several weeks, you’d be struggling to finish the season.
“We will ensure all the protocols are right. No use of changing rooms, go back to changing in the car. We’re also outside, which is supposed to be the safest place to be.
“From what I saw from the meeting, only a couple of teams wanted a couple of weeks of a break, but I don’t think that would make much of a difference.”
‘If teams are struggling, postpone it’
Alness United manager Robert MacCormack feels there has to be a united understanding of the situation when teams or players are affected with Covid.
He said: “It’s a difficult situation and I can see both sides of it. I would leave it up to each club to decide what they feel is the safest thing to do.
“I understand some teams wanted to have a two-week break, so we can get over the mini-outbreak that we have, especially in our area right now.
“If teams do have enough players to field a team, we should get games played. We wanted to be out playing football.
“We should take it game by game. If teams are struggling with Covid, matches should be postponed and played at a later date.
“We are away to Orkney on Saturday and have five or six cases right now. We will be taking a young squad up there, but we’re fortunate that we have a really good youth set-up and we can bring six or seven under-18s into the side.”
Cup-ties hopes for Bonar Bridge
Bonar Bridge have only five league games left to play and their boss Rob Mitchell hopes playing on will allow for the Jock Mackay Cup to be played.
He said: “I think it’s right to carry on with caution. If teams are calling off then it is going to be because of Covid.
“We have been lucky in that we’ve played the most games in the league (15 fixtures). We’re not doing anything different to anyone else, we’ve really just been fortunate.
“Hopefully as many fixtures can be played because I’d like to see another cup being played. However, if it’s not to be, it’s not to be.”
Saturday’s action sees Loch Ness travel to Nairn County reserves, Orkney host Alness United, Invergordon travel to Halkirk United and Bonar Bridge tackle Thurso.
Golspie Sutherland v St Duthus has been postponed due to Covid in the home camp. That has been rearranged for Monday, January 24.
NORTH CALEDONIAN LEAGUE FIXTURES – 8.1.22
(SPONSORED BY MACLEOD & MACCALLUM)Orkney v Alness United (12.45 p.m)
Nairn County 'A' v Loch Ness
Golspie Sutherland v St.Duthus
Halkirk United v Invergordon
Bonar Bridge v ThursoAll 1 p.m kick-offs unless stated #NCFA #NorthCaley pic.twitter.com/DzwDDAFElm
— North Caledonian FA (@NorthCaleyFA) December 20, 2021