Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes hopes festive football fans can look forward to a real season of goodwill by returning to matches.
The UK Government has announced plans to admit up to 4,000 fans to outdoor sporting events from next week dependant on which tier clubs are and the Joint Response Group has urged the Scottish Government to follow suit.
The news has been welcomed at Pittodrie where Dons chairman Dave Cormack appealed for more dialogue and a plan for a safe return of fans to games to be developed last week.
Dons boss McInnes said: “The JRG put out a statement saying they are keen to know what it will look like for Scottish clubs and that is clearly what the chairman has been asking for.
“We have got to be encouraged by the fact English clubs are confident they can get supporters back in and are being allowed, and hopefully we can quickly follow suit on that.
“It’s almost like a test event in England and us watching from the outside for the first week or two then seeing if we can get some of that goodwill shown towards us to get fans back in and get us going again up here.”
McInnes has also welcomed the apology from SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell following the Covid-19 outbreak within the Scotland under-21 camp, which has resulted in 11 players isolating including three Dons players – Ross McCrorie, Lewis Ferguson and Connor McLennan.
The Dons boss said: “I’m conscious that I don’t want to be speaking about it again, but I think it was encouraging that the chief executive has come out and has apologised.
“There’s been a form of accountability there and the clear message is that in hindsight they would have done things differently and they will look at all their procedures ahead of the next get together, which is encouraging to hear.
“It’s all we can ask for, really, as managers and clubs.”
McCrorie, Ferguson and McLennan will not return this week, meaning McInnes will go with the same squad which lost 4-0 to Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday when he takes his team to Hamilton Accies tonight (7.0).
McInnes is keen to move on from the first away defeat of the Premiership season at New Douglas Park tonight.
He said: “I do think for some of the goals there was a touch of misfortune about it, but clearly we were well beaten and Rangers were better than us on the day. Rangers carried on their form and we went into it with our own challenges but we’ve still got to feel disappointed with the scoreline.
“We were disappointed with one or two of the goals but we move on. We’ll work with the players we’ve got available and it’s an important three points now.”
Scott Wright will again miss out due to a groin problem which the Dons have deemed worthy of further investigation.
McInnes said: “He felt it last Friday towards the end of training and he’s not really responding. We’ve had it scanned.
“There’s nothing really clear on it. But it’s still causing him an issue, so we may have to get that looked at further by a specialist.”