Winter weather continues to hit county clubs – even those planning to play on artificial surfaces

Jan 13 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

A BOLD back-up plan to switch to artificial surfaces for friendlies when Saturday’s official games were called off suffered the same winter wipeout.

Lanark United and Larkhall Thistle had booked the Sir Matt Busby Sports Centre astroturf on Saturday, to be followed a couple of hours later by a Thorniewood United - Wishaw match at the Bellshill complex.

It was a similar tale of woe at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell, where Bellshill Athletic - Harthill Royal and Blantyre Vics - Newmains United matches were given the thumbs-down.

While the artificial surfaces might have been able to cope with the slight frost, there was nothing that could be done about the three or four inches of snowfall on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Voicing an opinion probably shared by several other managers, Vics boss Ian Rankin groaned: “It’s a real headache trying to arrange bookings at suitable indoor or outdoor facilities.

“It is costing extra money to use a variety of facilities at a time when we have no gate or raffle income coming in – and there’s still players’ expenses to pay.

“But we need to keep the players’ fitness levels up. The responsibility of trying to balance training needs and the finance is a nightmare.”

Lesmahagow managed to beat the weather by heading across to Ayrshire after manager Robert Irving successfully tapped into his network of contacts to arrange a match, which they won.

He explained: “I phoned Davie White, a team-mate of mine at Cumnock a few years ago, who is now head of youth development at Ayr United, and he agreed to a game with his under-19 side at Belmont Academy’s 3G pitch in Ayr.

“We won 3-2, with Ally Graham scoring first, then a double from Nicky Sullivan.

“Ayr scored just before half-time and added a second goal about 10 minutes from the end.

“It was a good work-out. All the players had at least 55 minutes on the park so it was a worthwhile venture.

“If the game doesn’t go ahead at Forth on Saturday, I’ve provisionally arranged to play Broomhouse Amateurs at the Glasgow Green 3G pitch – again, weather permitting.”

The ’Gow boss added with a smile: “We managed to train indoors on Saturday without picking up any injuries although there were a few niggles about sore backs from players claiming I had given them too many sit-ups to do!”

Wishaw beat crack amateur side Cambusnethan Talbot 3-1 in a friendly on the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility indoor pitch, with goals from James Coffey, Brian McKinven and Kevin Grant.

With schools back after the festive break, Wishaw have resumed their Monday training slot at Clyde Valley High School.

Forth managed to train in the rain at an outdoor session at Wishaw Sports Centre last Tuesday and trained indoors on Saturday.

But they lost out on Thursday night when a burst pipe put paid to a session planned for the sports facility adjacent to Braidhurst High School.

Manager John McGhee said: “Training indoors can be heavy impact stuff on hard surfaces and as a result I have four players – Kevin Docherty, Kris Jarvie, Davie Grant and Barry Nicholls – all attending physiotherapy sessions for groin or thigh strains.”

McGhee has provisionally arranged a friendly against an amateur side at Wishaw on Saturday if the game against ’Gow is called off.

Elsewhere, Newmains United organised a circuit training session to keep their players involved.