Club Update

The ‘Loons’ Directors held their normal fortnightly board meeting last night with the news of the suspension of lower league football for three weeks high on the agenda.

Although the decision has come as a disappointment and somewhat surprisingly with no prior warning to clubs, the reasons for it are understandable.

At our own club, the amount of travelling that management and players have to do for playing and training purposes in these troubled times could not be underestimated.

However, all were complying with the rules and protocols in place to allow matches to go ahead albeit in the surreal closed-door atmosphere.

In this regard, the Forfar Athletic Directors would like to put on record their gratitude to our Covid Officer Alan Shepherd (‘Wee Sheepy’), for the tremendous amount of preparation, hard work and time he has put in to help see the club through the pandemic to date.

They would also like to thank the volunteers who have assisted in this task.

The management and playing squad also deserve a pat on the back.   It is easy to say that they have had the privilege in recent months of continuing an active involvement in the game they love and get paid for it into the bargain.

However, they have had to adjust to a new fairly strict regime which has included restrictions on methods of travel, looking after their own training gear etc and sadly not being able to get a shower after training sessions or matches.

It cannot have been any fun heading back to Glasgow in your car after a two-hour training session in heavy rain 100 miles from home at times.

Moving on and the initial suspension is for a three week period, but we all know that this could be extended, but hopefully not.

Of course, during that period, no group training sessions are allowed either, so the players will have to try and keep as fit as possible through personal training plans provided by the coaching team.

Certainly, once the ‘green light’ is given to resume hostilities, there will have to be the opportunity for training sessions, perhaps a friendly fixture as well,  before competitive football can resume.

The Directors at Forfar Athletic are convinced however that following the slightly shambolic ending to last season, it is vitally important that every effort is made this time round to complete what is a 27 game league campaign.

Hopefully and we pray that it will be the case that the vaccine rollout sees a sharp drop in the number of new cases of the virus.

Allied to this, there are still around a dozen midweek slots in March, April and May when fixtures could be slotted in.

This would obviously be a major test of squad depth in Leagues One and Two, but nevertheless bring about we all hope a satisfactory conclusion to the season for all concerned unlike last time around.

Football, we must all remember, is only a small but to all involved an important part of the current equation.

The health and well being of the nation and beyond has to be and always will be the top priority.

Stay safe and keep well.