Winter weather hits junior football hard.

Dec 23 2010 Hamilton Advertiser

JUNIOR clubs in Lanarkshire are facing a huge fixture pile-up after more wintry weather wiped out the fixture list for the fourth weekend in a row on Saturday.

With Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on the next two Saturdays, county clubs will have to wait until at least two weeks before returning to action.

But, with January and February the peak period for weather-enforced postponements, the fixture pile-up shows no signing of letting up, leaving West Region secretary Scott Robertson with an administrative nightmare.

It seems that a hectic midweek schedule is on the cards for most clubs as soon as the clocks go forward at the end of March to allow Monday and Wednesday evening games to be slotted into the calendar.

However, a request to West Region clubs to play a fixture on Monday, January 3, 2011 – a bank holiday – was met with a muted response, leaving Robertson to find other solutions to the winter call-offs curse.

Robertson (pictured right) said: “It’s frustrating but there’s nothing we can do about it. The backlog is not as bad as it was at this time last year when we lost 15 games in August due to heavy rain.”

“I’m a bit disappointed though at the response by clubs to a suggestion that they play on Monday, January 3.

“Out of 53 clubs in the West Region, only six have responded, and only two games so far can be arranged – Auchinleck v Pollok and Dalry v Kilsyth.

“But we’re not too bad in some of the leagues. A few of the clubs have only played six and seven games but there are quite a few who have played 10.”

The enforced winter shutdown has undoubtedly caused problems for clubs who will have lost vital gate receipts because of the call-offs but there are a number of clubs who are putting a positive spin on the postponement problem and using the time off to allow key players to return from injury without missing any matches.

Super Premier League outfit Lanark United will be hopeful that key men Tommy Lennox, Paul Burns, Paul Woods, Stuart Tullis and Stefan McCluskey, who were all on the treatment table, will be back for the new year.

Blantyre Vics had young striker Paul Mallon and experienced defender David Arbuckle crocked, while Larkhall Thistle forwards Allan Watson and Allan Campbell were sidelined.

Forth Wanderers’ experienced manager John McGhee said: “In a way, the break maybe has a positive effect for us, for it is allowing long-term casualties Davie Grant, Barry Canning and Craig Crawford to improve their fitness without missing any league games.”

However, Bellshill Athletic, who were climbing up the Super League First Division table when the snow and frost set in, take a different view.

Captain Mark Casey said: “I realise some clubs who have lots of injuries or who haven’t been playing well might be enjoying the break, but it has been really disappointing for us as we were on a good run.

“Things didn’t work out after a big turnaround in players at the start of the season, leading to a change in manager due to the results – that’s football – but since Gerry Creaney has taken over, he has us playing good football again.

“We clocked up four wins out of four, including a great win in the Scottish Cup at Glenafton, but then came the big freeze.

“We felt confident and fit and were looking forward to our next Scottish Cup tie – now we have to keep mentally right and ready to start again.”