Dumbarton head to Station Park for League One ‘Curtain Raiser’
Forfar Athletic will begin their 27 game SPFL League One campaign all going well in eighty days time with a home fixture against Dumbarton.
Whether of course spectators will be allowed access to the fixtures, even in limited numbers is still very much in the balance. We can only hope this becomes a reality as it has already been proved in England and beyond that football at any level without the fans is most certainly not the beautiful game as we know and love it.
Following the visit of the ‘Sons’ the ‘Loons head for a tough game at Falkirk, before ending the first month of the season at home to Montrose.
Stuart Malcolm’s side has been landed with 13 home games and 14 away from home but that is simply the luck of the draw in the extraordinary circumstances the SPFL administration team find themselves left to deal with.
Perhaps slightly disappointingly one of those home games is a midweek fixture in mid-April against Partick Thistle.
The festive period begins on December 19th with a short trip over the Tay to Methil, followed by the first-ever visit on competitive duty to Station Park from Cove Rangers on Boxing Day. An away derby at Montrose heralds in 2021, a year all will hope does not bring with it similarly troubled times.
Airdrieonians will bring the league season to a close at Station Park on May 1st, with the normal play-off fixtures scheduled for the ensuing fortnight.
The two blank Saturdays in January have obviously been set aside for Scottish Cup fixtures while a League Cup tie will be the order of the day on November 14th.
The release of the fixtures normally would also bring about a flurry of activity for club officials dealing with enquiries and taking ever welcome bookings for match and match ball sponsorship as well as the ever-popular hospitality packages.
In recent seasons the ‘sold out’ signs have become a regular and heartening feature with all these projects, bringing with it income without which the club would have struggled to survive and also bringing enjoyment to many as the Station Park match day experience was enhanced.
However, these are not normal times as we all know and at present, we can only ask all interested parties to be patient as for obvious reasons the club are not in a position to even consider enquiries or provisional bookings at present.
As mentioned above there is the possibility of the season starting perish the thought behind closed doors.
Secondly, even if spectators are allowed in the stadium, there is a distinct possibility, in fact almost a certainty that some sort of social distancing will still be in force, which would mean restricted numbers in the lounges.
Thirdly due to complications with the layout of Station Park in many respects, there is the possibility that one or even more of the lounges may have to be utilised for different matchday purposes at the outset of the campaign.
Then, of course, we have less Saturday matches than is normal and some consideration to be fair may have to be given in the first instance to those who missed out when the last four home games of the 2019/20 season were wiped out due to the pandemic.
Little wonder that like many of their counterparts elsewhere in the country, the ‘Loons’ Directors are suffering a few sleepless nights.
This, however, is no different to many others running businesses of all descriptions throughout the country in these still troubled times.
Rest assured as will be the case with the potential sale of season tickets, we will try our very best as we have done throughout the Covid 19 crisis to keep fans as up to date as humanly possible at all times with this ever-evolving ‘picture.’
