East Fife know who they’ll be playing - but still unsure how they’ll be training

The Methil men were this week grouped beside Heart of Midlothian, Inverness Caley Thistle, Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers in the Betfred Cup.

The competition is scheduled to start on October 6 and the Bayview boss was hoping to begin his preparations for kick off at the end of this month.

But football clubs are still expected to adhere to on-going safety advice and testing - the manner of which is still causing the East Fife boss some concern.

He said: “We’re still trying to find out when we’re back.

“We’re due on the 27th but we’re not any further forward with what we’re supposed to do with testing.

“The last we heard the testing was at one day a week but now we don’t know if there are to be different regulations.

“The Premier League clubs are back training full contact but we’re supposed to be going back in and training in separate pods.

“It’s supposed to be like that for just a week but what’s the point in that for two training sessions then you just go to the same as everybody else?

“It’s bizarre that we still haven’t come to a conclusion and an agreement.

“You’ll have the Premier League clubs doing one thing and then the Championship, League One and League Two doing something else.

“Hopefully we find out soon enough.”

The Betfred Cup starts in just under two months from now and will be East Fife’s first taste of competitive football since the sport was closed down before the end of last season.

Premier League clubs have already kicked off their league season, and boss Young says it’s positive to have some games on the horizon.

“We’re getting there slowly but surely,” he said.

“The main thing now is getting through our pre-season and our pre-season games. But there are still these uncertainties on the back of things like what happened up in Aberdeen.

“That could quite easily have been a Cove Rangers or someone like that.”

The Fifers added former St Johnstone winger Danny Swanson to the squad last week and Young remains positive about making further signings soon.

But competition is becoming tougher than in seasons gone by, with East Fife now having the added competition of big spending clubs like Kelty Hearts, Darvel and East Kilbride.

“There will always be good players and clubs will always try to get them,” said the boss.

“At the end of the day they have to look after themselves but we’re delighted with what we have and delighted with our squad. If a player comes along who’ll improve that then brilliant.”

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspapers - the Fife Free Press, Fife Herald, St Andrews Citizen and East Fife Mail.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Allan Crow, Editor, Fife Free Press