By DYLAN INGLIS
NEWMAINS UNITED co-manager Paul Davies reckons it was right to end this season – so teams can prepare for next term.
The first ever West of Scotland League campaign was halted in January when the Scottish Government suspended all football below the SPFL Championship.
With most teams having only a few games under their belt and no sign of a return anytime soon, league chiefs decided the best option was to scrap the remaining games.
Davies feels that resolution was the correct call – and means sides can get ready for July, when the 2021/22 season could kick-off.
He said: “I do think it’s the right decision. To be honest I’m just glad it’s been made and everyone now knows where they are going forward.
“I suppose we can prepare for next season now. Had this been in January we could maybe have had something played.
“But trying to squeeze the minimum amount of games in between now and May 22 was always going to be difficult.
“For us it was the right decision. Maybe clubs who had invested in their ground to try and get licencing for next season would look upon it differently.
“But I think if the league now moves the season forward to July it gives us all plenty of time to prepare.”
Newmains will take a short break but Davies is already planning for pre-season.
He added: “We’ll take a little bit of time off and look to go back in a month or so. We’ll do a kind of pre-pre-season to get all the boys back together.
“It will all depend on when the season goes back though - if it does end up being July we’ll hope to get a pre-season in May.
“Looking at the government roadmap I’m pretty optimistic what they’ve set out should be a realistic timescale.
“But like everything else in this pandemic we don’t actually know what’s in store for us I suppose. But going on the roadmap I’m optimistic!
“The main problem the league faces is a possible backlog of fixtures. There will be a new West of Scotland Cup, teams with club licensing also go into the senior Scottish cup and sides that are still members of the juniors association have that Scottish Cup.”
