Fort William vice-chairman Colin Wood says they will meet the challenge of having to play all their games away from home head on.
The Lochaber side will not play at Claggan Park this season because the pitch is unplayable.
As a result, Fort have agreed with the Highland League to play all fixtures away from home, which will result in increased costs.
However, the division’s other clubs have offered to pass on the travel costs they would normally accrue for a fixture at Claggan Park and Fort William also plan to start a crowdfunder to assist with costs.
Fort have found themselves in this situation with their pitch, sprinkler system and tractor having been damaged as a result of vandalism.
Club looking to bounce back
They have not been able to carry out the required remedial work in time to host fixtures this term.
Wood said: “In usual times groundsharing would have been an option. Highland Rugby Club’s Canal Park has been used very effectively for that before.
“And I’m sure there would have been other Highland League clubs who would have offered.
“But in Covid times that’s really not realistic, each Highland League club has done a huge amount of planning regarding how things operate at their stadium because of the protocols.
“It means groundsharing just wasn’t an option. We would have liked to have had more time and play our fixtures later on.
“But we have had a lot of call-offs in previous winters and at the very least this guarantees all the games will be played.
“In our first game against Rothes we were a lot more competitive and the goals were down to individual errors which we’ll work on.
“Ashley (Hollyer, manager) is very positive and up for the challenge, we’ve got a lot of exciting new players coming in this season as well.
“With the the relegation play-off coming in this season, it would have been easy to take a year out.
“But that’s not our style, we’ll meet this challenge head on.
“I would also say that this situation is not the Highland League’s doing.
“The Highland League has got a lot of criticism for us having to play away from home, but it’s not their doing, they are simply reacting to the situation.”
Vandalism hasn’t helped Fort’s cause
One of the reasons for Fort William’s problems with vandalism was the lease was held by Highland Council which meant the club could not lock gates at Claggan Park at night.
Now Fort hold the lease and Wood says it will allow them to tighten up security and also apply for grants as they look to improve the pitch.
He added: “The issue we’ve always had at Claggan Park was that it was under Highland Council control, which meant we couldn’t lock any gates.
“Therefore we were susceptible to vandalism and other non-football related activity.
“But the club now has the lease, so we will be able to lock the gates at night and tighten up security.
“Now that we have a 25-year lease, we’ll be apply for grants to redo the surface entirely.
“Ian Blackford (MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber) has been on the phone and Kate Forbes (MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) has given us a lot of help as well.
“All the local politicians are trying to help us find a way through it and that’s appreciated.
“In the long term this could become a positive for the club and the positive right now is that there will be a game every Saturday.”