Club Update

Many supporters will have been wondering if there has been a news blackout at Station Park since the late and so unfortunate cancellation of our opening Betfred tie at Dens Park on Tuesday evening.

Well if so it was not intended, it was a simply a case of having no ‘concrete’ news to impart and it was felt better not to speculate on the immediate way forward for the club in the circumstances.

We are now delighted to say that following 72 hours that have been trying and quite draining for club management and officials, the ‘Loons’ have been given the all-clear to resume training tomorrow morning and our scheduled home Betfred tie against Hibernian on Tuesday night will go ahead as planned.

The worst-case scenario at one point was that more than half the playing staff could have been forced into isolation for a fortnight, which would also have put the ‘kybosh’ on our opening league fixture against Dumbarton as well but thankfully that is not now the case.

We will, however, have to go into both games minus COVID 19 victim Kyle Dalling and Chris Antoniazzi who has also had to endure a period of isolation due to close contact with his Granite City based colleague.

The great news is that Kyle despite his positive test on Tuesday past is feeling fine as are his family members and of course we wish them all a full recovery.

The remainder of the playing staff, along with the management team and certain club officials were COVID tested at Station Park last night by an outside sourced medical team in preparation for the joust with the Premiership outfit and again thankfully all tests came back with a negative result.

Quite frankly it has been far from a week to remember for all concerned with the Athies, but one some will probably take some time to forget with the ‘midnight oil’ being burned to bring about a safe and acceptable solution to the situation.

The club are also very grateful for the advice and assistance given over the period by Neil Doncaster and Calum Beattie of the SPFL, as well as that of Dr John MacLean the SFA Chief Medical Officer despite his current busy time with the various health problems engulfing the national squads.

Thanks also to all our good friends at Dens Park for accepting the position we found ourselves in with such good grace late on Tuesday afternoon and for their good luck messages to Kyle.

Onwards and upwards as they say!